| Cost per Ton. | Mills. | Per Bushel of Wheat. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| dols. | per ton mile. | cents. | |
| By animal power | 8·96 | 4·53 | 7·37 |
| By Baxter steamers[244] | 9·04 | 4·58 | 7·45 |
| By Belgian system[245] | 8·32 | 4·21 | 6·91 |
| Do. do.[246] | 7·76 | 3·92 | 6·48 |
| By steamer and consort[247] | 7·68 | 3·88 | 6·41 |
| Do. do.[248] | 7·56 | 3·83 | 6·34 |
The economists and engineers of Germany have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the question of the cost of transport by water as compared with the cost of railway transport. For such an inquiry they have had ample facilities, having not only an economically-worked railway system, but having also several navigable rivers, on which a large traffic is carried, in addition to their system of canals. The results which have been brought out by these inquiries are instructive, if they are not final. Their effect has been to create a very considerable agitation in Germany on behalf of additional waterways, which are described as essential to the transport of heavy traffic, and which the Government has taken up as a measure of State. Hitherto, however, the amount of traffic carried on the waterways of Germany has been very much less than the traffic carried upon the railways, thus confirming the experience of the United States, Great Britain, and France, in so far as it shows that cheapness of cost of transport is not the one thing needful.
The quantity of traffic carried over the German navigable ways in 1884 is estimated to have been close on 19½ millions of tons.[249] In the same year the total quantity of traffic carried over the railways of Germany amounted to 107 millions of tons, so that the railways carried 5½ times more than the waterways. For other countries the proportions of the total traffic carried in the same year were as follows:—
| Railways. | Waterways. | |
|---|---|---|
| tons. | tons. | |
| United States | ||
| France | .. | 30,000,000 |
| Belgium | .. | 20,000,000 |
There does not exist any exact information as to the quantity of traffic carried on English canals. C. von Scherzer has put the quantity at 30 to 35 millions of tons.[250] This, however, is only conjecture. There is no authoritative record of the extent of canal traffic in this country, and no estimate of the tonnage actually carried was even attempted by the Canal Committee of 1883.
A canal from the Westphalian coal district to Emden having recently been projected, a German economist was led to compare the cost of carriage upon canals and on a single-line mineral railway with few stations and a small staff. Assuming eight trains of sixty loaded waggons per day to the port, of which twelve are returned loaded, and a cost of 6000l. per kilometre for building the line, as actually incurred for similar lines in the district, he calculated the cost per train-kilometre as follows:—
| d. | |
| Repairs and renewals of locomotives | 1·20 |
| Fuel | 2·40 |
| Cleaning, oil, &c. | 0·54 |
| Repairs, and renewals of wagons | 2·88 |
| Lighting and heating of guard’s van | 0·02 |
| Drivers’ wages, including mileage | 1·41 |
| Guards and brakesmen’s wages, including mileage | 2·46 |
| Inspection, &c., of rolling stock | 0·13 |
| Station-service | 3·12 |
| Permanent-way, repairs, and signalmen | 4·32 |
| General management | 1·56 |
| Interest on capital account for line, locomotives, | |
| and wagons, at 4 per cent. | 14·52 |
| Total | 34·56d. |
- 34·56
- or ──── = 0·096d. per ton-kilometre = 0·16d. per ton mile.
- 3·60
The carriage on the Elbe canals costs 0·35d. per ton-mile, and on the canal from the Belgian coalfields to Paris the rate was 0·29d. in the spring and 0·34d. in the autumn of 1883, without paying interest.[251] These figures do not, however, appear to agree with those found to work out in similar cases elsewhere. On the Aire and Calder Canal, for example, steamboat trains of barges, recently introduced by Mr. Bartholomew, have reduced the cost of haulage with a speed of 4½ to 6 miles per hour to 1⁄119th of a penny per ton per mile for minerals, and 1⁄34th of a penny per ton per mile for general merchandise, including return empties.[252] On the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, however, the cost of steam haulage, towing two 40-ton barges, fully loaded, has been given at ⅙ penny per ton per mile, and on the Gloucester Canal the charge for steam towing is given at 1⁄10th penny per ton per mile.
Cost of Horse Towing.—On two Belgian canals, the Louvain and the Charleroi, horses are employed for towing. The Louvain Canal is semi-maritime, with 3½ metres = 11½ feet depth of water, and runs north-west from Louvain to the river Senne, which flows into the Rupel about 1 kilom. or ⅝th of a mile further north-west. Its length is 30 kilom. = 18¾ miles, divided into five levels; the total tonnage of the boats and ships passing through it in 1878 was estimated at 273,000 tons, and the charge for towing averages 6 millimes per tonne-kilom. = 0·093 penny per ton per mile. The Charleroi Canal, winding northwards from Charleroi to Brussels by a circuitous route of 75 kilom. = 47 miles, is of small section, and its boats carry only 70 tons; hence the charge for towing is higher, amounting to 8 millimes per tonne-kilom. = 0·125 penny per ton per mile. Including the return of empties, a recent writer has estimated that horse towing might be done on free canals for 5 millimes per tonne-kilom. = 0·078 penny per ton per mile.