Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

On the 31st December, 1863, the capital paid up was £404,215,802. Miles opened for traffic, 12,322. Passengers conveyed in 1863 (exclusive of 64,391 holders of periodical tickets), 204,635,075, of whom 26,086,008 were first class, 57,476,669 second, and 121,072,398 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £14,521,528. Merchandise, 32,517,247 tons; minerals, 68,043,154 tons; live stock, 13,029,675 head. Receipts from these sources, £16,663,869. Total receipts, £31,156,397. The miles run by passenger trains were 61,032,143; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, &c., 55,560,018; total, 116,592,161. Total working expenses, £15,027,234; their proportion to receipts 48·23 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1864, the capital paid up was £425,719,613. Miles opened for traffic, 12,789. Passengers in 1864 (exclusive of 76,499 holders of periodical tickets), 229,272,165, of whom 27,701,415 were first class, 65,269,169 second, and 136,301,581 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £15,684,040. Merchandise, 34,914,913 tons; minerals, 75,445,781 tons; live stock, 13,673,786 head. Receipts from these sources, £18,331,524. Total receipts, £34,015,564. The miles run by passenger trains were 66,555,219; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 62,575,724; total, 129,130,943. Total working expenses, £16,000,308; their proportion to receipts, 47·03 per cent.

On the 31st December, 1865, the capital paid up was £455,478,143. Miles opened for traffic, 13,289. Passengers conveyed in 1865 (exclusive of 97,147 holders of periodical tickets), 251,862,715, of whom 29,663,205 were first class, 70,783,241 second, and 151,416,269 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £16,572,051. Merchandise, 36,787,638 tons; minerals, 77,805,786 tons; live stock, 14,530,937 head. Receipts from these sources, £19,317,475. Total receipts, £35,890,073. The miles run by passenger trains were 71,206,818; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 68,320,309; total, 139,527,127. Total working expenses, £17,149,073; their proportion to receipts, 48 per cent.

The length of the railways in Ireland is 1,948 miles. In Scotland it is about 2,350 miles, with gross traffic receipts of about £4,200,000, whilst the income derived from Irish railways did not exceed £1,800,000 in 1866. Thus the mileage of the Scotch railways is about a sixth of the total mileage of the United Kingdom; its receipts about a ninth, the total amount of British railway receipts for 1866, being about £37,800,000.[11] The proportions for Ireland are about a seventh of the total mileage—less than a twentieth of the total receipts. There are 35 separate Boards of Railway Directors in the sister kingdom, an average of 55½ miles of railway for each Board to attend to, but, inasmuch as the aggregate length of the nine longest Irish railways is 1,354 miles, it follows that the average length of each of the remaining 26 companies’ lines is not quite 23 miles. Each company has, besides its separate Board of Directors, its separate Secretary, separate Traffic Manager, separate Engineer, separate Locomotive Superintendent, and separate Accountant. Could the London and North-Western manage to sub-divide itself after the fashion of Irish Railway Companies, it would require a staff of 73 of every one of these officers. It is to be deplored that railway animosity[12] is, in its sphere, as intense in Ireland as that which has so-called religion, for its basis. Both inflict a fearful amount of injury upon the material interests and development of the country.

One of the most objectionable features in Irish railway management is the high rates of fares charged to passengers, but especially to those of the third class; in fact rendering third class carriages in a great measure unavailable for the persons for whose use they were specially intended by the Legislature. We are happy, however, to perceive a better, a larger, and a more liberal view is beginning to be taken in Ireland on this subject, for at the meeting of the shareholders of the Midland Great Western Railway—the second of Irish railways in extent and importance, the Chairman made lengthened reference to the subject. “It was,” said Mr. Ralph Cusack, “a bold policy to adopt a scale of fares unusually low, to establish a system of excursion trains every week to and from distant points, and to hold out special inducements to the very humblest classes to avail themselves of the facilities of railway travelling.” This policy, nevertheless, was adopted, but it will not be matter of surprise that it did not find favour at the Boards of Direction of other Companies, it being alleged to be totally unsuited to the circumstances of Ireland, even where the population is numerous and tolerably prosperous. The result, however, has been that, notwithstanding peculiar difficulties arising from the embarrassed circumstances of the railway previous to the present directors coming into office, the experiment has already been successful, and will be more so. As the chairman truly said, “people require to be educated in travelling, and that could only be done by holding out inducements that would draw the masses to the railways.” It is to be hoped that the thirty-four other boards of directors will adopt this liberal and enlightened policy. It will, we are convinced, prove alike beneficial to shareholders, and to the material interests of the country.

The Board of Trade did not obtain returns of rolling stock from the companies until the year 1860. On the 31st December of that year they possessed 5,801 locomotive engines. By the 31st December, 1865, they had gradually increased to 7,414. The proportions have invariably been a little more than one engine for each two miles of railway open. On the London and North-Western, as already stated, the proportion is a little more than one engine a mile. The passenger carriages on the 31st December, 1860, were 15,076; but there must have been a great demolition of them in 1861, for on the 31st of December of that year they were only 14,609. However, they speedily recovered their numbers, for at the end of 1862 there were 15,366, and on the 31st December, 1865, 17,997, just a shade over a carriage and a third for each mile of railway open. “Other vehicles attached to passenger trains,”—these comprise break and luggage vans, travelling post offices and post office tenders, horse boxes, and carriage trucks. Their number at the end of 1861 was 5,737; on the 31st December, 1865, 6,853, a little less than one for every two miles. The use of carriage trucks has greatly diminished upon railways, but the use of horse boxes has not diminished, partly because in recent years all over England, wherever there is hunting, a “horse and his rider” can go to the field, each with his return ticket, thirty, forty, and even fifty miles, making an early start in the morning, and returning in the evening in time, at all events, for the rider’s dinner. The other “partly” is, that horse boxes have for some years been employed in a traffic for which they were not originally intended; for the Time books of many of the railways contain notices that they are available for the conveyance of the remains of persons to their last homes and resting places; and they are frequently used for this purpose.

Waggons, which comprise vehicles for the conveyance of every description of goods and minerals, timber waggons, cattle waggons, gunpowder waggons, bullion waggons, salt waggons, milk waggons, covered waggons, high-sided waggons, low-sided waggons, in short the genus waggon of every possible shape and conformity, were 188,623 on the 31st December, 1860, and on the 31st of December, 1865, they had increased to 226,407, or nearly 16¾ for each mile of railway.

The foregoing figures furnish matter for much consideration. They show, incontestably, how unceasingly the railway system of the United Kingdom, taken as a whole, continues its development. As new miles of railway are opened, and notwithstanding that they are situated principally in districts where both population and traffic are light, as compared with the population and traffic of the districts in which railways were first constructed, the total average of receipts throughout the United Kingdom, only receded three times. Thus, the average receipts per mile in 1852 were £2,141. In 1853, £2,346. In 1854, £2,510. In 1855, £2,597. In 1856, £2,659. In 1857, £2,660. There was a considerable fall in 1858 to £2,516. In 1859, they advanced to £2,574. In 1860, they were £2,661. In 1861, £2,628. In 1862, they fell to £2,523. They increased slightly in 1863, to £2,528. In 1864, they rose to £2,651; and, in 1865, they were the highest during the fifteen years, £2,691, or £550 a mile higher than in 1852.

Although the number of passengers has increased very greatly in the seven years, the principal increase has been, as will be seen presently, in those of the third class. As the average distance which each third-class passenger travels is much less than the average of one of the second class, and still less comparatively than one of the first class, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that the average money value of each railway passenger should have fallen from 1s. 6d. in 1859, to 1s. 2d. in 1865, and that of the total increase of receipts between 1859 and 1865 (£10,146,611), the receipts from passengers only has not increased more than £3,606,223, whilst the increase from goods, minerals, and cattle, has been £6,111,466. Minerals come in for the larger share of this augmentation. In the shape of quantity, the advance has been 26,049,004 tons, or 50 per cent. In cash earned the advance has also been about 50 per cent. The amount in 1859, was £4,223,002; in 1865, £6,496,402. No doubt conveyance of coals by railway is gaining rapidly upon conveyance by water. This is every day becoming more evident, especially as regards London. In fact, we have by us a return showing that during the first six months of the present year, the sea-borne coal to the Metropolis has decreased 32,480 tons, as compared with the same period of 1866; whilst coal carried by railway has increased 154,453 tons. In the last few years the quantity of coal carried by railway to London, has been gradually creeping up. Last year it was equal to that borne by water, at present it exceeds it; and henceforward, a large increase may be looked for, as the Midland Railway being now completed to London, that Company will be able to carry very fine qualities of coal from collieries which are at the shortest distance from the Metropolis of all the coal-fields of England. This will, no doubt, diminish to some considerable extent the metropolitan coal traffic of the London and North-Western Company. It now carries about two-fifths (about one million tons) of all the coal brought by railway into London.

And here, as so much has recently been said about the enormous strides that have been made in the coal extraction from our collieries in the United Kingdom, a few words on the subject may not be deemed inappropriate. It is true that, as will be seen from the subjoined summary, extracted from the Times of the 13th of September last, its production has increased with very great rapidity during the last twelve years. In 1855 it was 64,453,679 tons; in 1856, 66,645,450 tons; in 1857, 65,394,707 tons; in 1858, 65,008,649 tons; in 1859, 71,979,765 tons; in 1860, 80,042,698 tons; in 1861, 83,635,214 tons; in 1862, 81,638,338 tons; in 1863, 86,292,515 tons; in 1864, 92,787,873 tons; in 1865, 98,150,587 tons; and in 1866, 101,630,544 tons. But is there any real reason for the uneasiness that has been created about failure of supply in a century or so? We believe not, and our reasons are explained in the foot note.[13]