Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1888

33 Classification table to be open for inspection. Copies to be sold

(1) The book, tables, or other document in use for the time being containing the general classification of merchandise carried on the railway of any company, shall, during all reasonable hours, be open to the inspection of any person without the payment of any fee at every station at which merchandise is received for conveyance, or where merchandise is received at some other place than a station then at the station nearest such place, and the said book, tables, or other document as revised from time to time shall be kept on sale at the principal office of the company at a price not exceeding one shilling.

(2) Printed copies of the classification of merchandise traffic, and schedule of maximum tolls, rates, and charges of every railway company authorised, as provided by this Act, shall be kept for sale by the railway company at such places and at such reasonable price as the Board of Trade may by any general or special order prescribe.

(3) The company shall within one week after application in writing made to the secretary of any railway company by any person interested in the carriage of any merchandise which has been or is intended to be carried over the railway of such company, render an account to the person so applying in which the charge made or claimed by the company for the carriage of such merchandise shall be divided, and the charge for conveyance over the railway shall be distinguished from the terminal charges (if any), and from the dock charges (if any), and if any terminal charge or dock charge is included in such account the nature and detail of the terminal expenses or dock charges in respect of which it is made shall be specified.

(4) Every railway company shall publish at every station at which merchandise is received for conveyance, or where merchandise is received at some other place than a station then at the station nearest to such place, a notice, in such form as may be from time to time prescribed by the Board of Trade, to the effect that such book, tables, and document touching the classification of merchandise and the rates as they are required by this section and section fourteen of the [36 & 37 Vict. c. 48.] Regulation of Railways Act, 1873, to keep at that station, are open to public inspection, and that information as to any charge can be obtained by application to the secretary or other officer at the address stated in such notice.

(5) Where a railway company carries merchandise partly by land and partly by sea, all the books, tables, and documents, touching the rates of charge of the railway company, which are kept by the railway company at any port in the United Kingdom used by the vessels which carry the sea traffic of the railway company, shall, besides containing all the rates charged for the sea traffic, state what proportion of any through rate is appropriated to conveyance by sea, distinguishing such proportion from that which is appropriated to the conveyance by land on either side of the sea.

(6) Where a railway company intend to make any increase in the tolls, rates, or charges published in the books required to be kept by the company for public inspection, under section fourteen of the Regulation of Railways Act, 1873, or this Act, they shall give by publication in such manner as the Board of Trade may prescribe at least fourteen days notice of such intended increase, stating in such notice the date on which the altered rate or charge is to take effect; and no such increase in the published tolls, rates, or charges of the railway company shall have effect unless and until the fourteen days notice required under this section has been given.

(7) Any company failing to comply with the provisions of this section shall, for each offence, and in the case of a continuing offence for every day during which the offence continues, be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.