CANALS. 



97 



is 7 per cent, of the working expenditure.* In the annexed table I 

 have taken one-third of this for the cost of canal maintenance. 



" (4.) The resistance to traction on a level railway, at the speed of 30 

 miles an hour, is exactly ten times the resistance to traction on a canal, 

 at the speed of 2J miles an hour.f The force that will draw a load on a 

 canal at four miles an hour is just half that required to draw an equal load 

 on a railway at 35 miles an hour. The economy of tractive force is thus 

 in inverse proportion to the speed of transport. Traction, on the railways 

 of the United Kingdom, costs 16 per cent, of the expenditure. I have 

 taken it at half that figure on canals. 



" (5.) It is not so evident why the item of traffic expenses, which forms J 

 30 per cent, of railway expenditure, should be so much lighter on canals. 

 It is, however, in evidence that it is so. I have taken the proportion, 

 from the French returns, at one-fifth of this rate. 



" (6.) The items of duty and general charges, which amount to 15 per 

 cent, of the English expenditure on railways, follow nearly the same 

 proportion as the trafl^c expenses, on the French canals. I have, how- 

 ever, allowed an equal proportionate charge to that of the railways for 

 the English canals. 



" I can thus state with confidence that the following table underrates the 

 economy to be attained by the use of canal transport for heavy traffic. 



" Out of every ;^200 paid for an equal tonnage transported an equal distance, 

 the detailed costs are: — 



Showing an economy of 64.7 per cent, by canal. 



"I may point out," adds Mr. Corder, "that in the case of the transport of 

 fish, of light parcels, and of any commodities for the rapid carriage of which 

 it is worth while to pay treble freight, the question of time has to be set 

 against that of cost. But mineral trains rarely run at higher speed than 

 fifteen miles an hour, while the time consumed in waiting in sidings is so 

 much, that on one important line the locomotive superintendent has stated 

 that the average rate of some of the trains, covering all stoppages, was not 

 above five miles per hour." 



It is clear from considerations such as these — and Mr. Corder's calcula- 

 tions are, I believe, still substantially true — that the canal, under normal 

 conditions, could by division of appropriate traffic, both be an aid and a 

 complement to the railway. Against this view, seemingly, is the strange 

 apathy of these railways who own canals in the United Kingdom in regard 

 to that portion of their property. It is commonly believed, that railway 

 proprietors are good judges of their own interests, and presumably there are 



* " Index to our Railway System," No. III., p. 24. 



t Vide "Transactions of the Institute of Civil Engineers," Vol. I., p. 173, and 

 " Locomotive Engineering," by Z. Colborn, Vol. I., p. 291. 

 I " Index to our Railway System," No. III., p. 24. 



H 



