[I]
MILEAGE IN 1909
According to the preliminary income report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the year ending June 30, 1909, compiled from the monthly returns, the average railway mileage operated in the United States during the year was 233,002.67 miles; and the total mileage operated at the end of the year was 234,182.70.
| The former total is made up of: | ||
| Large roads operating 251 miles or more | 214,916.86 | miles |
| Small roads " 250 " or less | 16,801.52 | " |
| Switching or terminal companies | 1,284.29 | " |
| Total | 233,002.67 | miles |
The returns to this Bureau, compiled from the annual reports for the same year, cover 221,132 miles, against 216,460 in 1908, an increase of 4,672 miles. Reports to the Commission for December, 1909, showed a total operated mileage of 236,166 miles.
In its report dated December 21, 1909, the Commission stated that for the year ending June 30, 1908, substantially complete returns had been received for 230,494 miles of line operated, including 8,661.34 miles used under trackage rights. These are the official figures of mileage for 1908, which will be used in all subsequent comparisons with the Bureau's figures for 1909—the latter, however, may include some switching and terminal mileage excluded from the former.
Of the mileage reporting to this Bureau, 8,927 miles were operated under trackage rights, leaving a net of 212,205 miles of line covered by capitalization and rental.
Assuming that the total operated mileage in the United States at the close of the fiscal year 1909 was 234,182, the complete returns to this Bureau cover approximately 94.4% of the mileage and 97% of the traffic of all the railways in the United States. No attempt has been made, or will be made, to segregate the returns of switching and terminal companies from the Bureau's figures, of which they are an integral part.
The first summary under this table presents the operated mileage reported to this Bureau in 1909 and 1908, classified by states and territories in comparison with the official figures of mileage owned in 1908, with relation to area and population of the respective territorial divisions: