Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854

The Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854, also known as Cardwell's Act, was an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament regulating the operation of railways. The railways were already considered to be Common Carriers and thus subject to the Carriers Act of 1830, but the 1854 Act placed additional obligations on the railways due to their monopoly status. Each railway company was now required to take all trade offered and to set and publish the same levels of fares to all in respect of any particular service.

The Act marked a milestone in English law and has also served as the foundation of similar legislation in the United States.

It is one of the Railway and Canal Traffic Acts 1854 to 1894.

The introduction of the railways from the 1830s onwards led to new possibilities for the transport of goods which previously had not been commonly carried at all. This led to the courts affording a certain degree of latitude to railway carriers, permitting them to make agreements for the purpose of protecting themselves against the new risks and dangers of carriage inherent to the goods they were transporting. It was not long before the railway companies were exploiting this new freedom, taking advantage of their dominance of the transport sector to impose stringent and often oppressive terms of business which limited their exposure to risk. The courts felt compelled to give effect to these agreements to which the parties to the contract had deliberately agreed unless there was evidence of fraud or illegality.

As Sir Alexander Cockburn told the House of Lords in 1863:

There cannot be a doubt that, practically speaking, the introduction of railways has destroyed the competition which formerly existed, and the effect of which was to secure to the goods owner fair and reasonable terms [...] [T]he absence of other means of conveyance, as well as the increased rapidity of transport, compels the owner of goods, at least for all the purposes of business, to resort to railway conveyance. He is thus at the mercy of the carrier, and has no alternative but to submit to any terms, however unjust and oppressive, which the latter may think fit to impose.

The 1854 Act therefore sought to put an end to this practice and reverse the jurisprudence in favour of railway operators, returning to the pre-railway age position where the courts were in the habit of construing contracts between individuals and carriers to the disadvantage of the latter.

The Act was promoted by Edward Cardwell, the President of the Board of Trade and chairman of the Select Committee responsible for the examination of the various amalgamation bills passing through Parliament. The Committee recommended that "Parliament should secure freedom and economy of transit from one end of the kingdom to the other and should compel railway companies to give the public the full advantage of convenient interchange from one railway system to another", and so came about the Railway and Canal Act 1854.

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