Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

But when the railway has arrived as far east as the City of the Golden Crescent, will it stop and end there? In one sense it must, unless indeed some of the engineers who are now competing for the honour of tunnelling under, or placing tubes upon the bed of the ocean between Dover and Calais, shall suggest a scheme for tunnelling under the Hellespont, and their proposals shall be accepted. At all events, even if a railway were only to extend a hundred or so of miles eastward in Asia Minor, one will certainly be made for that distance, and opened for traffic by the time the line, coming from the far west to its terminus at Constantinople, shall be completed. It will go through a country rich and productive, as well as covered by a prosperous and money-making population. Fact and reality ended, we approach a “dream of the future.” A dream not new to us, for we have often dreamt of it, and occasionally discussed it with others, whom the reader will probably feel disposed to consider as dreamy as ourselves. And yet the time will come—possibly even a few of those now grown to manhood may see its fulfilment before they die; the Long Railway will first traverse Turkey in Asia, anciently the seat of the kingdoms of Troy and of Lydia; the birth-land, possibly of Homer and Herodotus, certainly of Thales, Pythagoras, and others hardly less distinguished. From classic land it will cross to Persia, and from Persia it will pass to Afghanistan, the grandest in physical aspect, and perhaps for 600 miles, the most difficult country in the whole world for railway construction. When it has gone beyond those kingdoms, it will be on British soil. There it will attach itself to the then Great Indian Railway, the unbroken course of which will be from the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Ganges.

When the now far distant day of accomplishment has arrived, how will Calcutta and London be to one another in point of postal distance? Possibly, fifteen; certainly, not more than seventeen days asunder!

The third portion of the Scinde connection is the Punjaub Railway, 253 miles long. Its present western terminus is at Moultan, where eventually it will be united to the Indus Valley Railway. From Moultan the line follows nearly a straight course up the left bank of the Ravee to Lahore; whence it proceeds, taking a westerly course until it reaches Umritser. But surely the statements recently made respecting wholesale corruption, both in England and in India, on the Punjaub Railway cannot be true. It can hardly be possible that, but for the interference of the Governor-General, Sir John Lawrence, the contract price for the construction of the line would have been £5,000 a mile higher than it now is; neither is it to be believed, although so broadly asserted, that the iron-masters have to pay “the usual commission” of from five to ten per cent. for orders given to them by the officials of Indian Railways. However, the Government of India has very properly appointed a Commission to inquire into these allegations, and the facts must shortly come to light in their reality. It is evident, from a passage in Mr. Juland Danver’s Report, that he has had, for some time, serious doubts as to the efficient character of the traffic management of this railway.

In the year 1865 the gross earnings of the Punjaub Railway were £25,250; and if the traffic accounts be correct, the net receipts were £6,009. In 1866 the gross receipts were £90,269; the net £25,395. The number of train miles for the year ending the 30th of June, 1866, were 354,239. The Punjaub, while rich in agricultural produce, is a comparatively new and uncivilised province of British India; and the benefits which the railway is destined to confer upon it cannot be shown until proper access is obtained by the construction of roads leading to it from the neighbouring districts.

The Delhi Railway will, when completed, be 320 miles long, and it forms a link in India pretty much as the Lancaster and Carlisle does in England in connecting English and Scotch railways together. By means of the Delhi Railway a junction will be effected with the Punjaub Railway, the North-Western Provinces, the Indus Valley, and the Scinde Railways. 87 miles of line are now opened; 117 will be opened next year, leaving 116 to be finished in 1869. As the line crosses several important rivers, the bridges at them constitute the measure of time for the completion of the railway. It is, therefore, satisfactory to know that the piers and abutments of all the large bridges have been successfully got in.

The Eastern Bengal Railway Company was formed to give accommodation to the densely populated and prolific districts lying north and east of Calcutta. Its length is 114 miles; but in August, 1865, it was determined to extend the line forty-five miles farther, to Goalundo, at the confluence of the Bramapootra and the Ganges, with the view of intercepting the traffic from Assam, Bhotan, and the more distant north-eastern countries.

The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway Company was established in 1857 for the construction of a line, twenty-nine miles long, in a south-eastern direction, to a town and harbour which it was determined to establish on the Mutlah estuary, the object being to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Hooghly. The necessary wharves and jetties required at “Canning Town” have been constructed; but unfortunately, just as the traffic was beginning to make progress, the bed of the river shifted, in consequence, it is supposed, of certain operations on the shore close by, and it was partly carried away. The “Port Canning Company,” which has already expended £600,000 at the place, is re-establishing the jetty. A new town is now gradually rising at the place; “so that,” says Mr. Juland Danvers, “when the dangers and difficulties of its infancy are passed, the whole scheme of establishing a port on the Mutlah will be in a more promising condition. Upon the whole, we may look with hope, if not with confidence, to the future.”[98] The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway exhibits a deficit in its revenue accounts.

The Great Southern of India Railway was constituted in 1857, its objects being to construct railways in the southern provinces of India. The line runs from the east coast of the Great Indian Continent, by Tanjore to Trichinopoly, through a country extensively cultivated with rice and cotton crops. Seventy-nine miles were opened in 1862. An extension of eighty-seven miles has been since authorised, by which a junction will be effected with the Madras Railway at Errode.

With the exception of the Indus Valley and the Rajpootana Railways, all the lines above enumerated are entitled to the payment of interest from the Government of India, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, on all capital, the expenditure of which is duly sanctioned by the Government. At the close of 1865, the number of miles thus guaranteed was 4,944, and the amount of the guarantee would be about £81,000,000, when all lines are completed. This year, the guarantee has been extended to 700 more miles, making the total now sanctioned for guarantee 5,644 miles, and the total capital £88,000,000. By means of it, the Indian Branch Railway undertakes to construct a system of railways through Oude and Rohilcund, with branches to various places on the East Indian Railway. These districts are populous, and highly productive, and have obtained the name of the Garden of India. There are no engineering difficulties on the lines, and very few works of great magnitude, except some bridges over the Ganges, which will have to be made, if the full benefits of the lines are to be secured. The form of guarantee to the Indian Branch Railways differs in some details from the form originally adopted, but in the main the terms are the same. In the old contracts, the guarantee is given for ninety-nine years, and at the end of that period the railway lapses to the Government; but these provisions are practically annulled by the power which each company has of surrendering the railway to the Government at any time before the expiration of the ninety-ninth year (at the ninety-eight year for example), and receiving back from the Government the capital expended. In the new arrangements, no period is fixed for the termination of the guarantee, but the Government has the power of taking possession of the line after the first twenty years, or at the expiration of any ten years afterwards. If it exercise this power within a hundred years, it will have to pay a sum equivalent to the average value of the stock during the three preceding years. If the power be not exercised until after a hundred years, it then has only to pay back the capital expended. Per contra, the company has the power of surrendering the railway to the Government any time after the line has been opened six months. In this event, the Government is not to pay back more than the capital actually expended.

The amount of guaranteed capital raised up to the 1st of April, 1867, has been £67,254,802, of which £51,800,377 consists of share capital, and £15,454,425 of debentures. It may here be observed, that it has been determined, as a rule, henceforth to restrict, as far as possible, the issue of debenture capital, especially such as is not convertible into stock. Perpetual debenture stock has, however, been sanctioned, to some extent, in the case of the Great Indian Peninsular Company, and its issue will, probably, under certain circumstances, be permitted to be made by other companies.