Abstract
SIR HERBERT WALKER, general manager of the Southern Railway Co., has contributed a paper on the economic results achieved by the Southern Railway electrification to World Power of November, which proves that this scheme was a sound railway development. He points out that at the time of the amalgamation of the L. and S.W.R. and the L.B. and S.C.R. in 1923, the success of the electrification of their suburban lines had been already proved. The electrification of the Brighton-Worthing line in 1932 confirms the success of the earlier electrification schemes. Immediately the section of line to Brighton and Worthing was electrified, the number of passengers carried began to grow. At the end of six months the number carried was 22 per cent larger than the corresponding period of the preceding year. This is due partly to the introduction of a service of trains of much greater frequency than formerly, and partly to the shortening of schedule times owing to the increased powers of acceleration and to the higher speed up steep gradients. Notwithstanding the lower fares brought into operation between many of the stations, the increase in receipts for the first six months was nearly 18 per cent. The development of the passenger traffic is shown by the fact that the number of people who travelled to Brighton during the Easter holiday period of last year was nearly 150,000, and exceeded the population of Brighton itself. The percentage increase in the issue of season tickets on the Brighton and Worthing extension has increased from month to month. The increased annual cost to the railway of the interest on all the capital charges due to the electrification has been covered in the first six months of working.
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Southern Railway Electrification. Nature 132, 888 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132888b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132888b0