Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

The longest of all European railways is nearly half Italian, and a little more than half “South Austrian.” It is called in France “Sud, Autrichienne et Haute Italie.” In Italy the two last words are converted into “Alta Italia.” The total length is now 2,565 English miles, of which the South Austrian portion measures 1,349, and the Italian 1,216. The two next longest railways of Europe are French. The Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Company has a length of railway, in France, of 2,234 miles, and in 1864, it adopted a translitoral little son, which is known by the name of the “Algerian Railways.” At present the gentle youth is of modest proportions, only thirty-one miles open for traffic, eighty-one to be opened in the present year; and of the remaining 264 which are to constitute its full grown mileage (376 miles), little more work than “etudes preliminaries” has been bestowed upon them. At the period of the greatest growth of the Algerian railway, it will never be more than a pigmy as compared with its adopting parent.

The railway that in mileage comes next in succession, is the Orleans Company. Its length is 2,052 miles. The last of the four railway giants, is our own English giant, the London and North-Western. Now, although the length of our countryman is the least of all—only 1,320 miles—it will nevertheless be seen hereafter, that in its other dimensions it is in most respects superior, in none inferior, to its continental brethren, just as the late Mr. Thomas Sayers was less in height and length of arm than Heenan, nevertheless, in the long run, he managed to beat him.

The two extreme western points of the mighty system of the South Austrian and Alta Italia are at Susa, at the foot of the Mont Cenis Pass of the Alps, and Cuneo at the foot of that of the Col di Tenda. Its two eastern are Vienna, and still farther (by means of its Hungarian net-work to the southward of Vienna), Pesth. Its northern is Kutzen, about a hundred miles to the south-east of Munich. Its southern, Pistoja, is twenty-two miles to the north-east of Florence. It possesses railways across two of the passes of the Alps, the Sœmmering and the Brenner. Its stations are at Genoa, Turin, Milan, Innspruch, capital of the Tyrol, Verona and Venice, Trieste, Vienna, and Pesth. It is equally fitted (as it has proved itself to be) for a great military railway, and for one to be devoted only to commercial and industrial development, but it has its skeleton in its closet,—it is not at Florence, capital of United Italy, nor is there prospect of its being there, except by a combination which shall unite with it the whole of the Strade Ferrate Romane, of which some particulars will be given hereafter.

The course and direction of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean, of the Orleans, and of the London and North-Western Companies, are, as there can be no doubt, sufficiently known to our readers to render description of them unnecessary. The great port of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean is Marseilles, the Liverpool of the Mediterranean, 537 miles from Paris, and 833 from London. The chief port of the Orleans Company is Bordeaux, 366 miles from Paris, 662 from London.

Before proceeding farther, let us refer, very briefly, to the early history of railways in France.

Neither the French Government nor the French people seemed to feel much interest about their construction until long subsequent to the opening of several hundred miles of them, both in Belgium and in Germany. The nation, was not, however, altogether ignorant of their existence, for tramways had been used in the Mineral Districts of St. Etienne, and near to the Banks of the Loire, for many years previously. They were, for the most part, worked by horses, but in some few cases by locomotives of the rudest construction, just as happened in our own coal districts in the North of England, previous to the epoch of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Dr. Lardner, in his Railway Economy, says that “to M. Emile Pereire is due the honour of having first impressed upon his countrymen the advantages which must arise from the adoption of this mode of transport.” With much difficulty he succeeded in forming a Company for making the short line between Paris and St. Germain. The Act for its construction was obtained in July 1835, and it was opened for traffic in December 1837. It was originally, in part, worked as a locomotive line, and partly on what was known as the atmospheric system, but for the last five or six years the traffic is carried exclusively by means of the locomotive. Its length is thirteen miles, and it now forms one of the “Lignes de Banlieue,” of the Western of France Railway Company. (Chemin de Fer de l’Ouest.)

But it was not until 1837 that the importance of France having a net-work throughout the Kingdom was appreciated. In that year a Royal Commission Avas appointed, which made its report in 1838, but owing to internal jealousies and other causes, the recommendations of the report were not adopted, and the Government of the day had to submit to defeat upon them.

In 1838, what is now the Great Orleans Company obtained its first concession, which was for a Railway to extend from Paris to Orleans. Powerful and elongated as the Company now is, it had, in its early career, to undergo much financial difficulty and embarrassment, and it was only owing to the Government coming to its aid, by guaranteeing four per cent. on its capital, that the Company was able to complete and to open the railway for traffic.

A concession was given to the Paris and Rouen Company in 1841. The line was opened for traffic on the 9th of May, 1843.

The Fundamental Law for the construction of French Railways, and for the subsequent administrative surveillance of them by the Government, was passed on the 11th of June, 1842.