For many of the inter-war years the Grouped railways, along with the Metropolitan Railway, issued this booklet of 'facts' about the associated railways through the British Railways Press Bureau based in Westminster, London. The 'Big Four' created by mergers in 1923, the London MIdland & Scottish, the London & North Eastern, the Great Western and the Southern Railways were amongst the country's most strategic of industries, in terms of capital, employee numbers, passenger and freight transport and the Bureau enabled them to exercise some political clout. This was particularly the case by 1930 when, for the first time in a century, their near monopoly on transport was being challenged by the growing motor vehicle lobby.
The booklet therefore gives information about capital, equipment, employment and statistical data on passenger, freight and shipping services along with income, expenditure and costs. The striking cover is by Tom Purvis, an artist associated with the publicity work of the LNER, and the booklet has numerous vignettes that could well be 'stock illustrations". The figures quoted in the booklet cover the year 1929; not good years given the trade depression of the period and indeed, the main line railways would spend many of the coming years attempting to better deal with competition including changes to the legal framework governing the operation of railways around issues such as common carriage.
Whilst passenger transport was still of vital importance, for long distance travel as well as suburban services before the challenge of road transport, it was still financially subsidiary to freight. The statistics here are also used to show the safety and, for long distance trains, the relative speed of certain services. As well as a steam locomotive hauled express one of the Metropolitan Railway's electric locomotives, then used on services between the City and Rickmansworth (where outer suburban trains were changed to steam traction and vice-versa) is shown; this was something of a rarity as away from the Underground and the Southern's growing third-rail system, the use of electric traction was still relatively uncommon with only outliers in Lancashire and on Tyneside in service.