Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

It was not until the year 1852 that the Madras Railway was incorporated. The object of the company was to construct a railway from Madras to the western coast. The difficulties of construction of this railway have not been great, the only ones that presented themselves being the way in which several rivers should be crossed. By means of this line, railway communication with the important military station of Bangalore is obtained. It also passes through the cotton fields of Combatoore, and it finds its way through a passage in the Ghauts to the Port of Beypoor, on the coast of Malabar. From Madras to Beypoor, the distance is 406 miles. The Bangalore Branch is 86 miles, and it attains a height of 3,000 feet on the Mysore Table-land. The north-west line, leaving the main line at Arconum, 42 miles from Madras, proceeds through Cudapah, crosses the River Pennar to Gooty, to which place the line is expected to be opened in January next. Near Gooty, a branch is given off to Bellary. The main line crosses the Toongabruda, and runs to Raichore, the point of union with the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay. This portion of the railway, when completed, will be 338 miles, thus making the distance from Bombay to Madras 821 miles, 160 miles more than by the ordinary road. The connection between the Bombay and Madras Railways is expected to be complete in 1869. When the whole main line and branches are completed, the length of the Madras Railway will be 825 miles. Of these, 645 are at present open.

The traffic of the line has been injuriously affected in 1866 by the failure of the Monsoon rains, the consequent scarcity and famine, and the state of trade. But good service was rendered by it during the famine, in conveying to the districts so lamentably affected by it nearly 23,000 tons of food, an amount which Mr. Danvers says would have employed 17,000 carts every day for three months. The gross traffic receipts of 1866 were £438,787, showing an increase of £33,787 over 1865. The receipts per train mile in 1865 were 6s. 1d.; in 1866, 6s. 7¾d. The expenditure per train mile in 1865 was 2s. 10¾d.; in 1866, 3s. 2d. The train mileage for the year ending 30th June, 1866, was 1,306,998 miles.

Beypoor has for some time been felt as an unsuitable terminus, on the western coast, for the Madras Railway. It provides the conveniences neither of a harbour nor of a port, and the advantages of the railway to the western side of India are, in consequence, greatly diminished. Proposals have, accordingly, been made to extend it northwards to Calicut, or southwards to Cochin, sixty miles from Beypoor. The former would hardly be much better than Beypoor, but Cochin appears to offer considerable advantages. Independently of possessing a fine harbour, there is close by, the remarkable roadstead of Narrakal, accessible to ships at all seasons. The only drawback is, that the line would pass through a foreign territory; but this would be slight if the Rajah of Cochin would support the project. The matter is now under the consideration of both the Supreme and the Madras Governments.

It is expected that by means of the Madras Railway the French East Indian settlement of Pondicherry,[89] situated not far from the south-eastern extremity of the continent, will eventually be linked by the railway system with all the chief cities of British India. The French Government has just decided upon granting a subsidy for the construction of a line that, in the first instance, is to be carried between the City of Pondicherry and Conjeveram, and subsequently to some point on the Anglo-Indian system. Such a connection will materially improve postal and passenger communication between France and its dependency. At present there is only direct intercourse between them once a month, through the medium of the steamers of the Messageries Impériales—a company that is largely subsidised by the French Imperial Government.

The Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway was formed to connect Bombay with the Cotton districts of Guzzerat and Central India. The works were commenced in 1856. Taking a northward direction along the coast from Bombay, it passes Damaun and Surat. Here it crosses the River Taptee by an iron bridge 2,000 feet long. But at the Nezbudda River the bridge is nearly double that length, being 3,800 feet. This has been the most formidable work of construction on this railway. The line then continues its course to Ahmedabad, which is 310 miles distant from Bombay.

This line, when completed, will prove to be the most expensive in India. Its cost will be more than £20,000 a mile. To cover the interest a large traffic will be required, and such may be reasonably expected. But its capabilities are at present cramped by the want of a good terminal station at the Port of Bombay,[90] and by the imperfect road communications with the stations. This last is a complaint that can truly be made by all the railway companies of India. The railway sustained very serious damage by floods during the Monsoons of 1866. Their destructive character is said to have been unprecedented, and for upwards of a month the traffic was totally suspended on about thirty miles of the line. Nevertheless the growth of the traffic is not unsatisfactory. In 1866 the gross receipts were £407,688, being £85,872 more than in 1865. The gross receipts per train mile in 1865, were 12s. 6¾d. (the highest in India), but the working expenses were also the highest—8s. 1¾d. a mile. The train mileage for the year ending the 30th June, 1866, was 745,961 miles.

Very considerable desire exists in India to extend this railway from Baroda, across central India to Delhi, nearly parallel (but at a distance of from 350 to 500 miles during two-thirds of its course) to the main line of the Great Indian Peninsula to Jubbulpore, and thence to Allahabad. The length of this line would be about 570 miles, and surveys are already being carried on with the view of ascertaining the best route and making complete estimates of cost. At present it is assumed that the line will cost about £12,000 a mile, or £6,850,000. If the results of the surveys be satisfactory, arrangements will probably be made for constructing this railway. A main difficulty is that it will, for the most part, be carried through the territories of native princes; negotiations must, therefore, before the works can be commenced, be entered into for the abolition, at all events the relaxation, of the existing onerous transit dues.

The tendency of the construction of this extension would be to still further concentrate European traffic at Bombay, as by means of it not only would Delhi and the north-western provinces be accommodated, but there would be a second route from Bombay to Calcutta, a roundabout one to be sure,—but a second route notwithstanding.

The next railway we have to refer to is the Scinde Railway, which was incorporated in its present shape in 1857. “Although,” says the editor of Engineering, “the affairs of this company are under a single board, the operations of the company, in reality, embrace four separate concerns.” The object of the combined undertaking is to establish railway communication between the port of Kurrachee and the Punjaub, and to connect the chief cities of that province with the East Indian Railway, which has already been mentioned as extending to Delhi.