Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

In the three last years, both the Metropolitan and the London, Chatham and Dover Companies have carried the principle of cheap fares for the labouring classes much beyond the penny-a-mile system. These companies issue what are called “workman’s tickets.” It will be seen by the subjoined notice[23] contained in the monthly time books of the London, Chatham and Dover Company, that there are two classes of workman’s tickets. The distance from Victoria Station to Penge is 7¼ miles.

With such facilities it cannot he a matter of surprise, that whilst in the seven years, between 1859 and 1865, both inclusive, the first class passengers increased 10,459,054, an average yearly increase of 1,494,122; the second 26,431,338, an average yearly increase of 3,775,905; those of the third class rose 65,215,029, an average yearly increase of 9,316,432. But this is not altogether the way to look at it, for whilst the increase of third class passengers, in the four years 1859-60-61-62, was 19,253,241—a yearly average of 4,893,310, the increase of 1863 over 1862 was 15,617,917; 1864 over 1863, 15,229,183; and 1865 over 1864, 15,114,688.

In 1865 the total number of passengers carried (exclusive of 97,147 residential ticket holders) was 251,862,715, thus composed—first class, 29,663,205; second class, 70,783,241; third class, 151,416,269. But to the total number have to he added the journeys taken by the periodical ticket holders. If 100 journeys be allowed for each such holder (a number much below reality), it adds 9,717,400 to the gross amount, of which two-thirds should be attributed to first class, and one-third to second. Per contra, a deduction of about 5,000,000 must be made for passengers “booked through”—that is, passengers conveyed in a single journey over the lines of two or more companies. For instance, a passenger booked from London to Limerick, is carried, independent of his water conveyance, over the lines of four railway companies, and in the returns to the Board of Trade he is included as a passenger upon each of those lines as if he had taken a ticket upon it, yet, in reality, he takes but one journey, although it is a long one, 464 miles. Deducting say 5,000,000 on this account, it makes the total number of paying railway passengers about 256,500,000. In twenty-eight years, population and land-conveyed passengers have completely reversed their positions. In 1837 population was eight times as many as passengers, and in 1865 passengers were more than eight times as many as population.

As to the speed at which railway passengers are conveyed, we shall speak when referring to what our railways have done for postal service.

“Forty shillings a ton for goods between Liverpool and Manchester.” Yes; that was the price paid just a hundred years ago, and nobody could reckon upon having them in less than a week from the time of consignment. But the opening of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal diminished the price to six shillings a ton, and the time to three days. Now-a-days, the cotton spinner of Manchester would “spin a yarn” of formidable dimensions to a goods manager of a railway that dared to keep his goods more than a couple of hours on the road, with four or five hours more added for loading, unloading, and delivery. Not forty years ago, the charge was 1s. 1d. a ton a mile for goods, no matter of what kind or quality, conveyed by waggon. Thus, if any were weak enough to send a ton of goods from London to Manchester, the tariff rate would be £5. 1s. 4d., although probably the carrier, as an act of amiable condescension towards his customer, and in hopes of future favours, might take off the odd shilling and the level fourpence, and be content to carry for an even “fiver.” He would proceed at the top-gallant speed of fifteen knots a day, and he would reach his port, if all were well, in eighteen to twenty days from the time of his heaving anchor.

In process of time, the canal owners and lessees managed to more than double the charge for the conveyance of cotton between Liverpool and Manchester, and also to more than double the time for its delivery. They did more; if any of their customers happened to displease or offend them, their goods were put under ban. Canal managers were the trade unionists of those days. Nevertheless, the quantity of cotton carried was six times as much in 1824 as it had been in 1795.

The goods traffic of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway commenced on the 4th December, 1830, with a train of eighteen waggons, the weight of each of which was a little over 1¼ tons. The eighteen waggons carried a paying weight of 51½ tons of goods, the tender, water, and fuel weighed 4 tons, and, with the fifteen persons in the train, there was a total weight of 80 tons, which was drawn by an engine weighing 7½ tons, in two hours and fifty-four minutes, just 10½ miles an hour.

The development of goods traffic of our first-born English railway, although it was rapid and important, was not so striking as that of passengers; nevertheless, it increased from 1,432 tons in the first month to 5,104 tons in the fourth month. The coal traffic, from which much was expected, was practically nil; it did not become an important item of receipts until years afterwards. In fact, the Goods and Mineral Traffic of railways scarcely developed itself in the early period of their history, and, until about the year 1840, the relative proportions of passengers to goods was as 85 to 15. A striking illustration of this fact is afforded by the London and Birmingham Company; in its estimates of traffic submitted to Parliament in 1833, it was calculated that the goods traffic would produce £340,000 in the first year after opening. It barely realised £90,000, and it was twelve years before it had attained the sum of £340,000. But since 1840 the change has been gradually working. In 1847, with an average length of 3,426 miles open for traffic, 16,460,599 tons of goods of all kinds (in which are included minerals) were carried, and 3,709,030 head of cattle. All this traffic may he considered a new traffic, created solely through the influence of railways, precisely as the passenger traffic of railways, enormous as it is, is the excess of traffic over that conveyed by roadway. Between 1830 and 1837 it was often predicted that the canals of the kingdom would be ruined by the competition of railways, yet in 1846, seven to eight years after the main lines of railway which would come into competition with canals were opened, the latter were paying the following percentages on their capital:—Grand Junction 6, Oxford 26, Coventry 25, Old Birmingham 16, Trent and Mersey 30! Have canals suffered since then? Certainly not; they carry millions more tons of goods per annum than they did thirty years ago, and if they have to carry at a cheaper rate than formerly, competition has sharpened speed in transit, as well as despatch in collection and delivery; and not only is more business than ever done on the canals, but there is much more money made for distribution among shareholders.

In order to show the present state and estimation of canal property in England, we have extracted from the Investor’s Manual for August last, a publication issued monthly in connection with the Economist newspaper, a statement of the dividends that canals now pay to their shareholders. Commencing with the least profitable, and gradually ascending, we find that the Gloucester and Berkeley pays 2 per cent. in addition to paying 5 per cent. on its preferential stock; the Sheffield 2½; the Warwick and Birmingham 3; the Lancaster is leased to the London and North-Western Railway, at 3⅝; the Barnsley Canal pays 4; the Macclesfield Canal is leased by the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, at 4¼; the North Staffordshire Railway Company leases 116 miles of canal, which under the terms of the lease have recently paid 4¼ per cent., it has been as high as 4½. By comparing the canal receipts of the first half of 1865 with those for the corresponding period of 1866, it will be seen that the former were £45,414, the latter £52,488. The Grand Junction pays 4½, in addition to a 6 per cent. preferential capital, on exactly the same amount as the ordinary capital; the Rochdale pays 4¾; the Stratford and Avon is guaranteed 5 per cent. by the Great Western Railway Company; the Peak Forest pays 5; the Regents Canal, with its very large capital, pays 5¼; the Kennet and Avon, 6; the Forth and Clyde, 6½; the Oxford, 8¼; the London and North-Western guarantees the Birmingham Canal 10; the Coventry pays 13; the Stourbridge paid 14½ in 1864, but since then its profits have diminished, nevertheless it pays 11½; the Staffordshire and Worcestershire’s dividend was 21½ per cent. in 1864, but it has now fallen to 15½,—strange to say, the only canal in the whole list of canals that does not pay any dividend is close at hand, the Worcester and Birmingham; its capital is £450,000, the sum per share paid up is £78. 8s., yet the shares must have intrinsic value, as their price is quoted 12 in share lists. The last and the highest is the Liverpool and Leeds, notwithstanding that for about a third of its length it runs parallel to three railways, and for about two-thirds to two; its goods traffic is leased to the London and North-Western, the Lancashire, and the Midland, until 1871 at the rate of 28 per cent. per annum. Of course the profits of the Bridgewater and Elsemere Canals, being private property, cannot be stated, but they are known to be very large.