The salient features of the passenger service reported to this Bureau for the year 1909, as compared with the final official returns for the preceding year, are shown in the following statement:
| Item | Bureau Figures 1909 | Official Figures 1908 |
| Miles of line represented | 221,132 | 230,494 |
| Passengers carried. | 854,255,337 | 890,009,574 |
| Passengers carried 1 mile | 28,788,855,000 | 29,082,836,944 |
| Passenger revenue | $551,634,278 | $566,832,746 |
| Mileage of passenger trains | 491,903,107 | 505,945,582 |
| Average number of passengers in train | 58 | 54 |
| Average cars to a train | 5.3 | — |
| Passenger car miles | 2,594,508,987 | 2,705,659,994 |
| Average passenger journey (miles) | 33.71 | 32.66 |
| Average receipts per passenger mile (cents) | 1.916 | 1.937 |
According to the monthly reports to the Interstate Commerce Commission covering an average of 233,002 miles of line, the passenger revenues in 1909 were $564,302,580, or $1,943,077 less than the above revenues for only 228,164 miles of line in 1908.
The average receipts per passenger mile in 1909 are the lowest ever reported for American railways.
Taken in connection with the official returns covering the period since 1900, the above figures afford evidence of the confiscatory effect of the 2-cent passenger laws on railway revenues, as appears from the following statement:
| Summary of Passenger Mileage, Revenue and Receipts per Passenger Mile, 1900 to 1909. | ||||
| Year | Passengers Carried One Mile | Increase Over Preceding Year (Per Cent) | Passenger Revenue | Receipts per Passenger Mile |
| 1900 | 16,038,076,200 | — | $323,715,639 | 2.003 |
| 1901 | 17,353,588,444 | 8.2 | 351,356,265 | 2.013 |
| 1902 | 19,689,937,620 | 13.4 | 392,963,248 | 1.986 |
| 1903 | 20,915,763,881 | 6.2 | 421,704,592 | 2.006 |
| 1904 | 21,923,213,536 | 4.8 | 444,326,991 | 2.006 |
| 1905 | 23,800,149,436 | 8.6 | 472,694,732 | 1.962 |
| 1906 | 25,167,240,831 | 5.7 | 510,032,583 | 2.003 |
| 1907 | 27,718,554,030 | 10.1 | 564,606,343 | 2.014 |
| 1908 | 29,082,836,944 | 4.9 | 566,245,657 | 1.937 |
| 1909 | 29,452,000,000 | 1.3 | 564,302,580 | 1.916 |
| Increase, per cent | 83.7 | — | 74.6 | — |
Here it is shown that the passenger service rendered has increased 12% more than the passenger revenues. But more significant than this is the column of yearly increases in service by percentages. This utterly explodes the theory that passenger travel is greatly stimulated by low fares—aside from some positive incentive to increased travel, such as periodical expositions, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition for instance, the effect of which is clearly traceable in the increased service in 1905, which includes the heavy travel during the months of heavy attendance, July 1 to December 1, 1904.
The 2-cent passenger laws were passed so as to become generally effective July 1, 1907, and their effect on passenger receipts during the following year was such that these receipts were actually less in 1909 than in 1907, although the service performed by the railways was over 6% greater. Had the railways received the same rate in 1909 that they did in 1907 their revenue from passengers would have been nearly $29,000,000 more than it was.
Passenger Traffic 1909-1888.