RAILWAYS. 



Brought forward . . 88-54 



Ki-om 'J irlemorit to Waremme 10-83 



Waremme to Ans (near 



Liege) . . II -87 



(ilient to Bruges . . 27'65 



Bruges to Ostend . 14'6;1 - 



Total . 159-54 miles. 



2d April, 1838. 



12tli Aug.1838. 

 28th Aug. 1838. 



By a subsequent law, dated the 26th of May, 

 1837, the government was authorized to extend the 

 system by the construction of a line from Ghent 

 through Courtray to the French frontier, on the 

 road to Lisle, with a branch to Tournay; and by 

 uniting the provinces of Namur, Limbourg, and 

 Luxembourg, to the original system, by means of 

 branch railways. The length of these additional 

 lines will be from 90 to 100 miles. Some of them 

 are already finished, and others commenced. 



Thus the Belgian government has undertaken 

 the task of establishing a general system of rail- 

 ways in that country, uniting the principal towns 

 in the manner most advantageous to the general 

 interests of the kingdom, without overlooking the 

 particular interest of the several localities. The 

 people have had the advantage of a much earlier 

 introduction of this important means of communi- 

 cation, than if the undertaking had been left to 

 private speculation, without risk to individuals, 

 without the interference of private interests, 

 on lines, perhaps, which of themselves would have 

 offered no temptation to private enterprise, but 

 which as part of an extensive system will repay, 

 either directly or indirectly, the money expended 

 upon them. The government will, in all probabil- 

 ity, recover its outlay from the profits of the un- 

 dertaking, but will assuredly be repaid by an aug- 

 mentation of revenue arising from the increased 

 commerce and traffic throughout the kingdom. If 

 it be objected that the government will be enabled 

 to exercise too despotic a power over the means of 

 public communication, the experience of similar 

 private undertakings in our own country may give 

 rise to a question whether the control of the state 

 is likely to be more absolute than that of the di- 

 rectors of a chartered railroad. 



The Belgian government, however, does not re- 

 strain private enterprise upon any other lines than 

 those entering into the general system ; and among 

 numerous applications already made it has granted 

 two lines, one the Upper and Lower Flenu, in 

 Hainault, and the other from Charleroi to Vireux- 

 upon Meuse, on the French frontier. 



All the railways established by the government, 

 were formed with provision for a double line of 

 rails, but only one line was originally laid down, it 

 being the intention to add a second by degrees, ac- 

 cording to the wants of the traffic. Between 

 Brussels and Antwerp, the double line was com- 

 pleted in 1837. The same plan of commencing 

 with a single line has been generally adopted in the 

 United States. This circumstance must be borne 

 in mind in considering the following statement of 

 the expenses of construction. 



The cost of ten sections, comprising the ex- 

 penses of locomotive power, stations and buildings, 

 was about 1,360,000, or 8.526 a mile. It ap- 

 pears from an account of the expenses up to Janu- 

 ary 1838, that the cost of construction alone 

 amounted to 86-8 per cent, of the sum then ex- 

 pended ; and that of locomotives, carriages, sta- 

 tions, and buildings, to 13-2 per cent. The out- 

 lay upon each of the six lines open at the latter 

 period, was as follows: 



VII. 



Length. Avers-* Cost, 



Mil's. Total Post. per viK 



From Mechlin to Brussels 12-61 L 75 716 L.6.004 



Antwerp . 14-60 124,775 8,546 



Dendermond 16-59 76,044 4,583 



Louvain . 14-76 108,428 7,346 

 Louvain to Tirlemont . 11-03 128,628 11.661 

 Dendermond to Ghent . 18.95 105,784 5,582 



Total . 



88-54 L.619,375 L.G,905 



The cost, however, of four sections completed 

 afterwards appears to have been considerably 

 greater, and to have amounted to 10,432 a mile. 

 The expense from Brussels to Antwerp, with ti 

 double line of rails, was 7,368 per mile ; and that 

 of the four other sections, with a single line, was 

 6,829, This comparatively greater cost of the 

 latter was owing to the numerous works of art, 

 bridges, viaducts, cuttings, and fillings, and parti- 

 cularly to the tunnel, of 984 yards in length, be- 

 tween Louvain and Tirlemont. It is worthy of 

 notice, that the estimates of the engineers made in 

 1833 were exceeded on the above four sections by 

 only 8 per cent. 



Let us now compare these results with the cost 

 of similar undertakings in this country, and else- 

 where. The lowest sum yet incurred in the con- 

 struction of a well-executed railway in England, is 

 stated to be 10,000 a mile. This was the amount 

 on the Newcastle and Carlisle, and on the Wigan 

 lines ; but of the former only about one-half the 

 length was laid with a double line of rails. Others, 

 however, (exclusive of lines in the vicinity of the 

 metropolis, the cost of which is enormous,) have 

 amounted to 40,000 a mile. The cost of the 

 Manchester and Liverpool line was 38,553 per 

 mile ; of the Warrington and Newton, a branch of 

 the latter, 12,470; of the Leeds and Selby, 

 10,500; of the Dublin and Kingstown, 41,823. 

 The short line from London to Greenwich, of only 

 three miles cost more than 600,000, or 200,000 

 a mile. The estimated cost of the forty-four rail- 

 ways for which acts were obtained in 1836 and 

 1837, was 25,692,500; their length, 1,457 miles; 

 and the average estimated cost per mile, 17,600. 

 But this estimate fell considerably short of the real 

 expense. A striking instance of the insufficiency 

 of the parliamentary estimates is afforded by the 

 London and Birmingham railway. The estimate 

 was 2,500,000 ; the cost, up to 30th June, 1838, 

 4,553,557, exhibiting an excess over the estimate 

 of 82 per cent. ; and a further sum of 500,000 

 was then required to complete it. It may be diffi- 

 cult to foresee all the contingencies which are likely 

 to arise in the construction of a railway ; but some 

 measure appears necessary to prevent so great a 

 discrepancy between the estimates and the actual 

 cost. In France, the estimated expenses of four 

 different projected lines between Paris and Havre, 

 vary from 1.5,400 to 21,400 a mile. In com- 

 parison, therefore, with England or France, Bel- 

 gium possesses great advantages in the cheap con- 

 struction of railways ; but it falls as far short, on 

 the other hand, of the United States of America. 

 There the cost is stated to fluctuate between 

 2,000 and 6,000 per mile; and Mr Porter gives 

 an instance, in the second volume of the " Progress 

 of the Nation," (p. 76), of a railway in that coun- 

 try which cost only 1,312 4s. per mile, and even 

 that amount was greatly enhanced by a change in 

 the mode of construction introduced after the line 

 was completed. 



This enormous difference of cost, not only be- 

 tween lines situated in different countries, but be- 

 3c 



