56 AMERICAN RAILROAD JOURNAL. has been doubled 2 Did the first 2,000 miles get the cream of the trafiic,as has often been thought, and has the average receipt per‘ mile consequently fallen off? Should the experience of the past, in short, give us con- fidence in urging on the system at the extra- ordinary rate at which we are now doing it, or not? In the following investigation and collection of facts it has been attempted to throw some light upon these points: the re- cent publication of the official railway returns for 1846 and 1847 afforded peculiar facilities for the purpose. The following paper refers to English, Scotch and Welch lines only—— the Irish lines are excluded,the economical condition of Ireland being different from that of this country, and there being but few rail- ways open in that country :—-— Comparatiee Long!/ts of Rctz'Zw:v_1/ open in 1843 and 1847, wna’. Receipts t./tcreon. The lengths of English, Scotch and Welch railways open June, 1843, were. . . . .. :. . . .1,990 Ditto, open at the commencement of 1848.. . .'.-5,597 The gross receipts returned for the year - 1842, were ..... . .- ................ . . £4,740,000 Ditto for the year ending, June 30, 1847. 8,326,772 “After making the necessary corrections in the above figures, the average receipts per mile of railways in 1842, were £2,489; in 1847, £2,596, We therefore arrive at the 30, 1847, was, as we have seen, £8,366,000. There were conveyed,during that year,from the returns of the Board of Trade, fin round numbers, 7,000,000 tons of merchandise and goods, 8,000,000 tons of coal, 500,000 horn- ed cattle, 1,500,000 sheep,and 100,000 horses. Of the gross sum, £8,366,000, the pas- senger receipts were . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..5, The receipts from all other SOl]I‘CC:5--‘ goods, cattle, carriages, parcels, mails, &c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..3,3/12,000 £ 024,000 £8,366,000 In every £100 of receipts, the passenger traf- fic, therefore, forms 60 per cent. ; the traffic receipt from other sources, 40. In 1842, these proportions were as 64 to 36. The proportions of traffic receipts from other sources than passengers (being principally goods and cattle traffic) have thus increased, since 1842, as 40 to 36, or 11 per cent. The total number of passengers carried in the year (ending June 30,) 1847, was 47,484,- 134, as compared with, in 1842, 22,403,478. The average distance travelled by each pas- senger was,in 1842,13 miles, in 184'7,it was 16 miles. the numbers and proporions important fact, that, although the mileage of our lines has been doubled, the receipts have been more than doubled. This must bere- garded as a favorable general feature in the state of railways- There was much reason to fear that, as the first railways ran between the great towns, or traversed the manufactur- ing districts, the railways which were next opened would show a great falling off in re ceipts. Hitherto, then, we find that this is not so——a fact which may give us confidence as regards the great length of railway which has been sanctioned by Parliament, but which is not yet open. , . Lines Sanctioned but not Open.--The Iength of railway sanctioned by Parliament at the commencement of 1848, but not then open, was 7,150 miles. a considerable por- tion of this is in progress, more or less rapid. Onthe 1st of May, 1847, 5,209 miles were returned as in progress, on which 218,792 persons were employed, or 42 per mile.*— These new railways are principally design- ed for the accommodation of the agricultural parts of the country. We will presently re-" l for to the prospects of railways in such dis- tricts. When the railways now in comtem- iplation are completed and it is probable that the greater portion will be so in the course of the next five years, we shall have upwards of 10,000 miles of railway open-—-on which, judging from the numbers employed on lines now open,1' (viz., 14 per mile,) 140,000 per- sons will be permanently employed, at good wages-—representing, at five to a family, three quarters of a million of the gross population. The importance of this addition to our inter- ternal communications will be appreciated, when it is remembered that there are only about.4,000 miles of inland navigation and 30,000 miles of turnpike road open for traffic in the country. , “ Analysis of Tm]/ic—--(afenerrtl Fezzmrcs. The gross traffic for the year ending June of classes were—— 0 In 1847. In 1842. First class . . . . . . . . 14-2 202 Second class . . . . . . 38-3 454 Third class . . . . . . .. 475 34-4- Thus, the third class passengers (which have increased in number since I842, from 6,000- 000 annually to 21,000,000,) now form near- ly half of the whole number travelling, whereas, in 1842, they formed only about one-third-. Only one-third of the third class passengers have availed themselves of the Parliamentary trains, arbitrarily, (and, as it appears to me, unfair,) imposed upon rail- way companies in 1844. The following ta- ble, comparing the fares of the metropolitan railways in the year ending June, 1843, with those in the year ending June 1847', shows the great reduction which has taken place in fares during the last four years’. 'I‘o make the comparison more appreciable, the fares are taken as for 100 miles in pence. FEE for 100 Miles. Railway. 1st. Class. r2nd Class. 3d Class. 184"/.l1843 847.1843.l184'7. _.__...__..... t I 1843, London <32. North- western . . . . . .. Great Weste'rn London & South Western . . . . . .. Eastern Counties North’n & Eastern Southeastern . . . . . Lon. do Brighton. : 1312! 9 118310 1200 9 164"’/‘ 9 1106 87'?) 90' 15001090 3348 303-1 312-0 294-1 217-4 , 227-0 214-0l150-0;15e-0 350-0 263-0,2-2ao'171~0 I303-5 237-4,2309 — l 218-11241-2.1446 2744 2085 1878 245-Ol210-01168-0 210.0p27-4 141-5 — 165-4 3. 0. G. 3. G 039 OD».- -967 250 1608 Average . . . . . . . . . ' 23-8 Difference per ct.. —- l 218 This reduction in fares, coupled with the increase in the number of trains, and the speed of travelling, must be regarded as the principal cause of the great increase of the number of passengers since 1848. “ ‘We have already seen that the numbers in 1847 and 1842, are as 47,484,134 to 22, 403,478. If we take into account the num- ber miles opened at those dates respectively, the annual number per mile was’ in 1842, 11,772, and in 1847, 14,806. ‘- The proportion of third class passengers has, we have seen, thus satisfactorily increas- ed bctween 1842 and 1847. The third class traffic has, however, developed itself very differently on diiferent lines; and it'may be well to inquire into this. The statement sub- joined, shows the third class traflic of two Metropolitan companies-—(the Eastern Coun- ties and the Great Western ;) two North of England companies~—(the Lancashire and Yorkshire and the Newcastle and Berwicl.';) and two Scotch companies (the Edinburg and Glasgow and Glasgow and Green0'clr.) Year ending June 30, 1847. _ Length 3N$‘fib§r [1 Name of Railway. 'n P '2 C 21“ hrlndred of “tiles. .abSeI'lge(I1‘S class wnveye ' Passengers Glasgow, Paisley «Sb G-reenock . . . . . . .. 059,534 833 ‘ Newcastle & Ber- " wick . . . . . . . . . . .. 653; 944,890 7.)-5 Edenburg 62» Glas- gow . . . . . . . . . . 46 836,025 728 Lancashire &York- . shire . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 2,090,624 72-3 Midland. . . . . . . . . 285 2,366,892 654 Eastern Counties... 177 1,044,158 503 Great VVestern. . . .. 104%} 419,663 146 From this it appears, that the Great Western company, on a line 241 miles long, have on- ly carried 419,963, the Edenhurg and Glas- gow company, on a line 46 miles long, have carried 836,025 , the Midland company, 285 miles long, 2356892; and that while, on the Great Western, only 15 outof every 100 passengers conveyed are third class, on the Eastern Counties 50 out of every 100, and on the Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock, 83 out of every 100, are third class passengers. Although it is true, that the different charac- ter of the population and other circumstan- ces will affect, to some extent, the relative number of third class passengers on different lines, the disparity here is so great, that we can come to no other conclusion, than that the arrangements of such a line as the Great Western as to third class passengers must be such as to precludehundreds of thousands of third class passengers yearly from using‘ the railway who, with greater facilities, would be glad to use it, ‘I say this with con- fidence, because, as manager of the Glasgow and Greenock railway, where the_ third class system has been more developed than on‘ any line in the country,(and where we carred pas~ sengers at a profit for one farthing a mile,) I had an -opportunity of observing the real advantage and comfort which very cheap travelling is to the working class. As the results of the working of that line afforded a remarkable instance of the effects of low fares, I have thought that it might notbe un- interesting to record them. The river Clyde * in this return, the number of miles returned as in progress, are more than those really in construction, the 11umb,er of men employed per mile is less than the truth. ' ‘+ These returns are not complete, and they require some correction, in respect to the same articles be, ing sometimes conve ed over several different lines- and therefore counte over more than once.