Parliament, as Parliaments do, yielded to clamour, and in 1881 a Select Committee was appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into railway charges, into the laws and conditions affecting such charges, and specially into passenger fares.  It was a big committee, consisted of 23 members, took 858 pages of evidence, and examined 80 witnesses.  At the end of the session they reported that, although they had sat continuously, time had failed for consideration of the evidence, and recommended that the committee be re-appointed in the next session.  This was done, and the committee, enlarged to 27 members, took further evidence, and submitted a report to Parliament.

The gravest issue was the right of the companies to charge terminals, and the committee found that the railways had made out their case, and recommended that the right of the companies to station terminals should be recognised by Parliament.  Further, the committee, on the whole of the evidence, acquitted the railway companies of any grave dereliction of their duty to the public, and added:  “It is remarkable that no witnesses have appeared to complain of ‘preferences’ given to individuals by railway companies as acts of private favour or partiality.”  As to passenger fares, the committee reported that the complaints submitted to them were rather local than general, and not of an important character, but thought that it might be well for the Railway Commissioners to have the same jurisdiction in respect to passengers as to goods traffic.

The railway companies thus emerged from this searching inquiry with credit, as they have done in the many investigations to which they have been subjected, and no high-minded and aspiring young railway novice need ever blush for the traditions of the service.

Before the committee Mr. James Grierson, General Manager of the Great Western, was the principal witness for the railway companies, and yeoman service he rendered.  He presented the railway case with great ability, and his views were accepted on the important terminal question.  In 1886 he published a book on Railway Rates, which was warmly welcomed by the Press and, in the words of Herepath’s Journal, was “an exhaustive, able, and dispassionate resume of all the conflicting statements, claims, and interests verging round the much vexed question of railway rates.”  Certainly he did much towards the ultimate settlement of the matter.  Mr. Grierson was, perhaps, the ablest witness before Parliamentary Committees the railway service ever had, which is saying much.  A leading counsel, during the luncheon interval, once said to him, “We feel small when we are cross-examining you.  You know all about the business, and we can only touch the fringe of it.”  The great secret of Mr. Grierson’s success was his mastery of, and scrupulous regard for, facts and his straightforwardness.  Of his book he himself said, “My conclusions may be disputed, but no one shall dispute the facts on which they are based.”