Note 12 — Chapter III

Here is one of a great many instances that might be quoted, from the Irish correspondence of the Times of no later date than the 1st of October, 1867.—“The necessity for having some efficient government control of railways, apart from the question of purchase, is illustrated by the unsatisfactory relations now subsisting between the Great Southern and Western Railway and the Kilkenny Junction line, which joins the former at Maryborough. The Great Southern are naturally unwilling to facilitate an opposition line, and pursue a policy of obstructiveness, which the directors conceive to be legitimate and expedient for the protection of their own interests, but which the public cannot quite understand, and find extremely inconvenient. Passengers are exposed to the risk of missing the train to Dublin on reaching Maryborough, and at Kilkenny the Great Southern Company will neither allow their waggons to come on the rival line with goods nor to enter the store of the Kilkenny Company. The consequence is that goods and cattle have to be taken out of the waggons at one part of the same track and placed in other vehicles at another part to resume their journey. It is hardly, perhaps, to be expected that companies should be disposed to assist competitors, but the interests of the public require that the intention of Parliament to afford increased accommodation shall not be frustrated.”