Bearing in mind this peculiar feature of water traffic, it is necessary, in speaking of the cost of transport by canal, to indicate the approximate amount of transport for which the calculation is made. Mr. Conder[262] holds that a traffic of 600,000 units of net load may be taken for this purpose, though it is far beneath the capacity of a canal of very moderate size. At this amount of duty, in order to allow a dividend of 4¼ per cent. on the capital cost, the rate of freight on an ordinary English canal comes to 154l. per 100,000 units, or 0·37d. per ton per mile. On the French canals, providing for sinking fund as well as interest, the cost of freight is 0·33d. per ton per mile. In Belgium it is reduced to 0·20d., and on the lake and large canal navigations of the United States to 0·10d. But on the Aire and Calder Canal, where very special arrangements have been made for the transport of coal, it was stated in evidence before the Select Committee on Canals, that the cost of freight has been reduced to the very low figure of 0·05d. per ton per mile. On English railways coal transport is charged for at the rate of 0·5d. to 1d. per ton per mile.
Mr. Conder has further estimated that in order to obtain the mean return of 4¼ per cent. on capital, which is all that the English railways have secured since they stopped the canal traffic, the normal charge must be, for passengers 0·67d. each, for goods 1·164d., and for minerals 1·838d. per ton per mile.[263] He adds that the charge at which the long coal traffic is conveyed to London from Wales, over the Great Western Railway, is 0·43d. per ton per mile; the loss to the Company being to some extent recouped by charges of from 1·5d. to 1·75d. per ton per mile made to those towns which have no alternative means of supply. The positive loss to the Company is thus about 0·4d. per ton per mile, and about one-half that loss is inflicted on the purchasers or freighters.[264]
It is only right to point out that Mr. Conder’s calculations are not accepted by railway managers, nor endorsed by independent experts. Mr. Price Williams, a well-known railway engineer, who has very closely investigated this subject, has come to the conclusion that railway companies can carry coal on an ordinary road at about 0·25d. per ton per mile, including return empties. This, however, is merely the cost of haulage, and it must, of course, be added to the cost of management, depreciation, interest, &c., before the exact figure is capable of ascertainment.
There is, however, even more authoritative evidence as to the actual cost of mineral traffic to the railway companies. Sir James Allport has had the candour to admit[265] that on the Midland Railway it is about 2s. 6d. per train mile with a train of 320 to 350 tons, which corresponds to rather under 0·2d. per ton per mile. This has been confirmed from other railway quarters.
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER XXVII
[234] Mr. Grierson, in his work on ‘Railway Rates’ (p. 68) remarks that the railway companies aim at making rates conform “to the requirements of trade, or according to a popular expression, to charge what the traffic will bear.”
[235] Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1888, pp. 185-188.
[236] In 1888 the average capital per mile of railway open in the United Kingdom was 43,210l., but for England and Wales alone the expenditure per mile was about 50,00l. In the United States the cost of construction and equipment per mile of railway open in 1888 was 52,699 dollars, or roughly, 10,600l.
[237] The rates have been taken from an interesting table published in the Railroad Gazette—an admirable and ably conducted paper—of January 9th, 1885. It is to be observed that down to 1879 the rates were quoted in a depreciated and fluctuating currency.
[238] Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. xiv., p. 44.