CO129-374 - Public Offices & Others - 1910 — Page 267

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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

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