According to a correspondent in yesterday’s _Times_ projectors of private
light railways have hitherto been very chary of risking their capital
owing to the precarious nature of their running powers. In nine cases out
of ten the light railway proposes to cross or skirt the highways at
certain points, and the permission which may be given by one district
council in such cases is revocable by the next. This must be so
inevitably, for circumstances might well arise under which a level
crossing, for instance, would become a public danger. The difficulty
might well be met by an appeal to arbitration in all cases of proposed
revocation of the running powers; and if the Board of Trade were to
undertake to nominate the arbitrator, the projector ought to have no
reasonable ground for timidity. The present Bill can only be regarded as
proposing to set an example and provide occasional assistance to the
construction of light railways. Seeing, therefore, that its chief result,
if successful, will be to encourage a more extensive construction of
railways, it is important that all obstacles in the way of private
enterprise in this direction should be at once removed. The _Times_
correspondent suggests that the insertion of a clause providing for
arbitration in all cases of dispute with the highway authorities would
meet the difficulty.