Midland Railway

An intriguing look back at public information of nearly 160 years ago. This timetable booklet has a typically Victorian profusion of typefaces, tables arranged in a fairly haphazard way, and actual train times presented in what seems to us a highly counter-intuitive format.

That the railways were still a novelty is borne out by the regular re-iteration of the terms and conditions of carriage, including the prominence given to the penalties for various misdemeanors. It's interesting to note that the Midland Railway was a wholly non-smoking undertaking in 1860; there must be a story behind that situation changing. And it's also interesting to note that this timetable pre-dates the completion of the Midland system - no London Extension, no Settle & Carlisle, and a number of other, shorter lines that the modern traveller takes for granted as providing the most direct route had not at that time been built. Some railways that have now vanished, such as the Leicester - Rugby line or the Stonebridge railway from Whitacre Junction to Hampton-in-Arden, are shown playing their roles as key links in the network. Visit them now and they are quiet, abandoned trackways. And it's also interesting to see how much the Midland was beholden to a number of its rival companies for the completion of major inter-city journeys.

This facsimile was produced by Turntable Publications of Sheffield; I rather suspect that it was prepared from a local (South Yorkshire) issue of the timetable as there are insert pages dealing with connecting omnibus services to Wakefield, Barnsley and various hostelries in small towns and villages all over the region. It's also instructive to note the fares quoted: yes, local travel was a matter of pennies, and the Parliamentary trains (here referred to as "Government trains") provided cheap travel at a statutory rate of one (old) penny per mile. But when you look at the tables for long-distance travel and find that the fares amount to a noticeable proportion of the skilled worker's wage, well it makes you think. In 1860, the first-class fare from Derby to Leeds was one guinea, (21 shillings, £1 1s. in old money or £1.05 in modern money), which was precisely 1/100th of the annual wage of a skilled engineer, which I have seen quoted online as £110 per year. On that basis, a first class ticket for the same journey now would be around £250, based on the UK average wage of £25,000; instead, the buy-on-the-day cost of such a ticket for immediate travel is just over £87.

Which makes me ask myself: if such a journey by the most modern means of travel cost an eye-watering and once-in-a-lifetime sum, and took just over five hours, and now takes just over one hour, and whilst still fairly expensive - certainly hardly a casual purchase - is still far more affordable, and will be made in far more comfort, and with more facilties on offer on the train and at principal stations than our Victorian forebears could even dream of, then how will our age look in 160 years from today? And what will seem normal then, that would be fantastical to us now?… (plus d'informations)