A ride from a city to the first suburban station costs from 3 to 10 cents, according to class of car, and to the second station 5 to 13.6 cents. On through trains a person may travel 15 miles at a cost of from 8-1/2 to 20 cents, according to kind of train and class of car, a hundred miles for from 85 cents to $2.00; 140 miles for from $1.15 to $2.80 and any distance above 140 miles for from $1.35 to $3.25. A person may thus travel from Buda-Pesth to Predeal, a distance of 472 miles, with a third-class ticket for zone 14, purchased at a cost of $1.35, or 28-100 of a cent per mile.
Our railroad men with much complacency point to the fact that these rates do not cover the forwarding of passengers' baggage and that this service must be paid for separately. These charges, however, are very moderate, being on 120 pounds of baggage 8-1/3 cents a distance of 34 miles or less, about 17 cents for a distance of more than 34 and less than 62 miles, and about 34 cents for any distance over 62 miles. The additional charge for carrying 120 pounds of baggage from Buda-Pesth to Predeal is therefore about one-fourteenth of one cent per mile. It must be admitted that this system of charging separately for passenger and baggage is eminently just, for there is no good reason why the passenger without baggage should be taxed to pay for the carriage of that of his fellow-traveler.
The zone tariff was introduced on the state railways of Hungary by M. Barosz, the Hungarian Minister of Commerce, on the 1st of August, 1889. The adoption of the new tariff was ridiculed and condemned as visionary by road experts, who even went so far as to prove to the satisfaction of practical railroad men that the innovation was destined to be a failure. For a month or two it almost seemed as if their prediction might be fulfilled, the number of passengers carried remaining behind the number carried during the corresponding period of previous years. But soon the reaction set in. The month of November, 1889, already witnessed an increase in the number of passengers as well as in receipts over the same month of the year previous. The result of the first year's trial demonstrated the wisdom of the "innovation." The number of passengers carried, which had been only 5,186,227 in 1888-89, rose to 13,060,751 in 1889-90, and the total receipts for passengers and baggage rose from 9,138,715 florins to 11,186,321 florins, a gain of 2,047,606 florins, or 22 per cent., during the first year. There is a continued increase both in the number of passengers and in receipts, and the success of the system must be pronounced phenomenal. The railroad experts of Europe, who had predicted the signal failure of the zone system, now that the unexpected has happened, are trying to discover the particular favorable conditions which made the success of the system possible in Hungary. It will probably be a decade, or even two, before the railroad experts of both hemispheres will be entirely reconciled to this new application of the old principle that a reduction in the price of a commodity increases the demand for it.
It is strange, indeed, that intelligent men should be so slow in recognizing an economic principle for which both history and daily experience furnish an unlimited number of illustrations. The post-office receipts everywhere have increased with a reduction in postage. The Government telegraph in England did not become self-supporting until Parliament made a sweeping reduction in its rates. The revenue from the Brooklyn bridge never paid a fair interest on the capital expended in its construction until its tolls were cut down. Were it necessary, hundreds of other examples could be added to these.
Hungary has also applied the zone system to its freight traffic. Three zones are fixed for the carrying of goods, viz.: Zone I, for distances less than 200 kilometers (124 miles); Zone II, for distances over 200 and less than 400 kilometers, and Zone III, for distances over 400 kilometers. A uniform tariff is established for each zone, which is one-third less than the average freight rates for equal distances formerly in force. American railroads should profit by the wisdom and experience of the Hungarian Government, and adopt at an early day such features of its system as upon our soil and under our institutions may be made practicable. The Hungarian system, with some modifications, is now being tried by Austria and a few of the German states, and is increasing railroad revenues wherever adopted.
There is a growing demand for lower fares. This demand increases in the same proportion in which the desire and the necessity for travel increase. European states have not been slow to meet it. Reductions are made everywhere, and chiefly favor the lower classes. Thus, when France, within the last year, changed her passenger tariff, she reduced first-class fare 9 per cent., second-class fare 18 per cent., and third-class 27 per cent.
The European passenger reports show the numbers of first and second-class passengers are continually falling off, while those of the third-class passengers are fast increasing. In England and Wales the number of first-class passengers fell between 1875 and 1889 from 37,000,000 to 24,000,000 while the number of third-class passengers increased during that same period from 350,000,000 to 601,000,000, and this increase still continues. In the United Kingdom the number of third-class passengers for 1891 was over 750,000,000. Furthermore, passenger revenue comes chiefly from the third class. In the United Kingdom the receipts from first-class passengers were in 1889 £3,188,000; from second-class passengers, £2,705,000; and from third-class passengers, £19,785,000. It is thus seen that receipts from third-class passengers are nearly 3-1/2 times as large as those from the first and second-class passengers combined. A similar proportion is found in nearly every country on the continent. European roads discovered some years ago that first and second-class passengers were carried at a loss, and all the passenger earnings were derived from third-class passengers. The profits from this source show a considerable increase every year.
The average fare per mile is 2.15 cents in the United States, and only 1.17 cents in Germany, 1.67 cents in Austria, 1.18 cents in Belgium, 1.29 cents in Denmark, 1.45 cents in France, 1.64 cents in Italy, and 1.45 cents in Russia. It is often claimed by railroad men that we travel more luxuriously than the people of any other country in the world, but it should not be forgotten that traveling in the United States is also more expensive than anywhere else. It is contended that class distinctions are odious in America, and that second and third-class cars would not be patronized. The same argument might be applied to theaters, hotels, clothiers, grocers, etc. It is difficult to see why distinction here should be less odious than on the railroad train. The truth is, Americans are just like other people and will avail themselves of accommodations in keeping with their means if they have the opportunity. Many passengers who will not travel in an uncouth smoking-car would, if clean second-class cars were provided, gladly dispense with the luxury of an upholstered seat if by doing so they could save from $5 to $10 a day.
A common laborer in this country earns from a dollar to a dollar and a half a day, and in the performance of his labor as a rule suffers greater inconvenience than does the traveler who travels the country in a second-class car. Is it under these circumstances at all likely that the American would hesitate to travel for a day in a plain but clean car, if by doing so he could save a week's earnings? We may even go further and say that it is a very reasonable assumption that the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow would choose the cheaper car if the difference in one day's fare were equal to one day's wages. It is a common saying in Europe that the first-class passengers consist of lords and fools, and few of the hundreds of thousands of American tourists traveling abroad give the natives occasion to class them with either. The first-class car has almost fallen into disuse in Europe, and even the patronage of the second-class is less than ten per cent, of that of the third.
Reduced rates for return tickets should be provided under rules and regulations of commissioners.