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Government itself works the Railways up to its own Frontier
(thereis possibly an exception to this in the case where
the Belgian Government owns a short length of Railway across the Frontier on French soil), while the regulations affecting the working, such as fixing rates and facilities, are usually
in the hands of a Joint Committee, but owing to the existence
of other competitive routes the Joint Committee usually consiste
of delegates of all the Companies interested in the traffic,
and their functions are extended so that they not only comprise
the regulation of the through traffic, but also the regulation
of competition and arrangements for the alternate routing of traffic over the various lines so as to give a fair proportion of paying traffic to each party to the Agreement.
This arrangement is seen in its most fully developed
form in the arrangement for working traffic between Germany
and Holland.
The German Railways are party owned by the Government
and partly by Companies but the Government exercises a very full control over all privately owned Railways.
The Dutch Railways are owned by the Government though
some of them are worked by a Company with,limited rights. The Joint Committee regulating through traffic comprises over 20
members.
As I stated in my previous Report I think thereis
no doubt that the future commercial success of the Canton
Kowloon Railway will best be served by arranging for Joint
Working of the whole system in the hands of a Joint Committee.
(IT
-2-