| TRACK. | MILES. | TRACK. | MILES. |
| First | 240,831 | Third | 2,206 |
| Second | 21,659 | Fourth | 1,489 |
It will be seen from the figures relating to track mileage in the United Kingdom that there is at least one mile of railway in the United Kingdom which really consists of nineteen pairs of rails alongside one another, though counting, in length of line, as only a single mile. In the United States there seems to be no suggestion of any railroad having more than four tracks.
The length of track in the United Kingdom is 39,851 miles. To this must be added a further 14,460 miles, the length of sidings reduced to single track, giving a total, including sidings, of 54,311 miles.
Rolling stock was owned in 1910 by the different railway companies throughout the United Kingdom as follows: Locomotives, 22,840; carriages used for conveyance of passengers only, but including rail motor carriages, 52,725; other vehicles attached to passenger trains, 20,090; waggons of all kinds used for the conveyance of live stock, minerals or general merchandise, 745,369; any other carriages or waggons used on the railway, 21,360; total number of vehicles, excluding locomotives, 839,544. These figures are exclusive of about 600,000 waggons owned by private traders.[[54]]
The total weight of goods and minerals conveyed in 1910 was 514,428,806 tons, and the total number of passengers carried (exclusive of 752,663 season-ticket holders) was 1,306,728,583. The miles travelled were—by passenger trains, 266,851,217; by goods trains, 154,555,559; by mixed trains, 1,814,762, giving a total of 423,221,538 miles. It is difficult to grasp the real significance of these figures; but, taking the train mileage alone the total distance run by trains in the United Kingdom in 1910 was equal to nearly 17,000 journeys round the world, and to four and a half journeys to the sun.
The total amount of railway capital returned as paid-up at the end of 1910 was £1,318,500,000, of which about £197,000,000, or approximately fifteen per cent, was due to nominal additions on the consolidation, conversion and division of stocks, showing a net investment of £1,120,500,000. The gross receipts of the companies during 1909 were as follows:—
| SOURCE. | £ | PROPORTION TO TOTAL RECEIPTS. |
| Passenger traffic | 52,758,489 | 42.57 |
| Goods | 61,478,643 | 49.61 |
| Miscellaneous[[55]] | 9,688,433 | 7.82 |
| ————— | ——— | |
| Totals | 123,925,565 | 100.00 |
The working expenditure in the same period amounted to £76,569,676, a proportion to total receipts of 62 per cent. The net receipts, therefore, were £47,355,889, the proportion of which to paid-up capital was 3.59 per cent.
The average rates of dividend or interest alike on ordinary and on all classes of capital paid in the years from 1900 to 1909, were as follows:—
| YEAR. | ORDINARY. | ALL CLASSES. |
| 1900 | 3.34 | 3.45 |
| 1901 | 3.05 | 3.33 |
| 1902 | 3.32 | 3.45 |
| 1903 | 3.30 | 3.44 |
| 1904 | 3.26 | 3.42 |
| 1905 | 3.29 | 3.43 |
| 1906 | 3.35 | 3.46 |
| 1907 | 3.31 | 3.45 |
| 1908 | 2.99 | 3.32 |
| 1909 | 3.15 | 3.39 |
| 1910 | 3.48 | 3.53 |