The Irish railway problem

Abstract

Probably one of the most serious of the many important economic problems urgently calling for a settlement is the future of the Irish railways. What is to be their fate? They certainly cannot go on as they are, for Government control, first exercised in August, 1914, under the provisions of the Regulation of Forces Act, 1871, by universal assent, is not a success or proving satisfactory to any person or interest, and it obviously must soon cease and determine; and the sooner, therefore, the inevitable is faced by the Irish public the better for all parties concerned. In this question three interests are involved and have to be reconciled. Those are, first, the interests of the travelling and trading public, the community in general, their right to obtain the best service at the cheapest possible rates compatible with a fair remuneration to labour, and a just return on the private capital supplied for construction and working, without which capital the lines would never have been built. Secondly, are the fair and just cliadms of labour for adequate remuneration; and, lastly, the interests of those who represent the money originally sunk in the enterprises.