1848.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL, 



.309 



The proportion of third-class passen(;ers has, we have seen, thus satis- 

 factorily increased between 1842 and 1847. The third-class traffic has, 

 however, developed itself very differently on different lines ; and it may be 

 well to inquire into this. The statement suhjoined shows the third-class 

 traffic of two metropolitan companies (the Eastern Counties and the Great 

 Western) — two North of England companies (the Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 and the Newcastle and Berwick) — and two Scotch companies (the Edin- 

 burgh and Glasgow and the Glasgow and Greenock). 



Year ending June 30, 1847. 



From this it appears that while the Great Western Company, on a line 241 

 miles long, have only carried 419,663, the Edinburgh and Glasgow Company, 

 on a line 46 miles long, have carried 836,025 ; the Midland Company, 285 

 miles long, 2,366,892 ; and that while on the Great Western only 15 out of 

 every 100 passengers conveyed are third-class, on the Eastern Counties 50 

 out of every 100, and on the Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock, 83 out of 

 every 100 are third-class passengers. Although it is true that the different 

 character of the population and other circumstances will affect to some 

 extent the relative number of third-class passengers on different lines, the 

 disparity here is so great that we can come to no other conclusion than that 

 the arrangements of such a line as the Great Western as to third-class pas- 

 sengers must be such as to preclude hundreds of thousands of third-class 

 passengers yearly from using the railway who, with greater facilities, would 

 he glad to use it. I say this with confidence, because as manager of the 

 Glasgow and Greenock Railway, where the third-class system has been more 

 developed than on any line in the country (and where we carried passengers 

 at a profit for one farthing a mile), I had an opportunity of observing the 

 real advantage and comfort which very cheap travelling is to the working 

 class. As the results of the working of that line afforded a remarkable 

 instance of the effects of low fares, I have thought that it might not be unin- 

 teresting to record them. The River Clyde runs beside the Glasgow, Paisley, 

 and Greenock Railway, which is 23 miles long. The steamboats have long 

 afforded an excellent mode of transport between Glasgow and Greenock, the 

 fares by boat before the railway opened being from \s to 2s., and the time 

 occupied was about two hours. Glasgow, with a population of 274,000, was 

 at one end of the line, Greenock, with a population of 36,000, at the other 

 end of the line, and various summer watering places lie at the mouth of the 

 Clyde, below Greenock. On the line were Paisley (population 60,000) and 

 Port Glasgow (population 7,000). Between Glasgow and Paisley was a 

 canal on which there were passenger-boats drawn by horses at a speed of 6 

 miles per hour. These facilities gave rise to a great traffic before the railway 

 was opened, — the yearly number travelling along the course of the railway 

 being 1,185,340, and the average fare Is. 4(/. Notwithstanding this, after 

 the railway was opened (ia 1843) the numbers travelling by all means of 

 conveyance were found to exceed 2,000,000, or to have increased 100 per 

 cent., the average fare having in the mean time fallen to lOrf. This was the 

 gross result ; but the fares of the railway (originally 2s. dd. first-class and 

 Is. 6d. second-class for 23 miles) were varied from time to time ; and as I 

 closely observed the effects of these variations, having caused an account to 

 be taken of the number travelling by steamboat and canal as well as by rail- 

 way, it may be well to state the results of these variations of fares. 



First alteralion. — In 1842, uncovered, open, third-class carriages, at a 

 fare of di. for the 23 miles (or about \d. per mile), were introduced on the 

 railway between Glasgow and Greenock, whereupon the annual number of 

 railway passengers between those places increased 224,000, being an increase 

 of 32 per cent, of the total number travelling (either by railway or steam- 

 boat). The nttaher of first and second-class fell off at the same time 30 per 

 cent, the passengers having transferred themselves from the higher class- 

 carriages into the open third-class carriages, tempted by the difference of 

 fares between ^. per mile and ^d. per mile. The gross receipts, however, 

 increased simultaneously 15 per cent. ; the working expenses on the other 

 band, did not appreciably increase, although the average number of pas- 

 sengers per train increased from 72 to 117. — Second alteration. The third- 

 class fares were subsequently (in 1843) raised from dd. to Is. wiih the hope 

 of increasing the revenue. The whole number travelling by railway and 

 steamboat immediately fell off 18 per cent. The first and second class rail- 

 way passengers increased by 10 per cent., but the gross receipts fell off more 

 than 10 per cent. The effect was also tried of making the third-class car- 

 riages more comfortable by covering them in. This was found not to in- 

 crease the number travelling, but it did reduce the number of first and second 

 class passengers by 16 per cent., and therefore caused considerable loss to 

 the company. The same experiment was repeated on the second-class car- 

 liiges : they were made more comfortable by inserting glass windows 



instead of wooden shutters, and by carrying the interior partition higher. 

 The number of first-class passengers shortly fell off by 12 per cent., but be- 

 yond this the second-class passengers did not appreciably increase ; this 

 experiment, therefore, also resulted in loss. The results of these experi- 

 ments were then — 1st. That a reduction of fares to ],d. per mile even from 

 so low a rate as \d. per mile increased the number travelling by nearly a 

 quarter of a million or by two-thirds of the whole population of the district. 

 As these people were generally of the less at&uent classes, it appears that 

 they were actually drawn out of the noisome streets of Glasgow to the 

 North of the Clyde by the temptation of a very low fare, and immediately 

 that the fare was raised they were driven back again into the city. 2nd. 

 That under the circumstances of the line in question, cheap and rapid tra- 

 velling increased the number travelling; but improving the lower-priced 

 carriages did not, however, appear to act in the same way, but merely 

 tempted passengers from the higher class carriages — those from the second- 

 class into the third-class carriages, and from the first to the second class : — 

 of course it by no means follows that similar results would ensue on lines in 

 other localities ; each case must be determined by its peculiar conditions. 

 3rd. That no limit can be assigned to the number of travellers which 

 cheapening and quickening the means of conveyance will create. The intro- 

 duction of the railway, even where steamboats already afforded a most 

 pleasant, rapid, and cheap communication, increased, we see, the number 

 travelling from 110,000 to 2,000,000—2,000,000 being five times the whole 

 population of the district. I doubt whether either at home or abroad so 

 large a proportion of travellers to the whole population is to be found. The 

 traffic between Glasgow and Paisley is probably the most remarkable instance 

 on record of the increase of travelling caused by increased facilities. In 

 1814 there was only one coach a week between Glasgow and Paisley, con- 

 veying about 2,000 persons per annum ; if we multiply this by 5 to allow 

 for the greater number of gigs and private vehicles then in use, we only get 

 10,000 passengers per annum conveyed between the two places. In 1842 

 the numbers travelling by public conveyance between Glasgow and Paisley 

 were upwards of 900,000. Now as the population between 1814 and 184i 

 had only about doubled itself, while the traffic, as we see, had multiplied 

 itself ninety-fold, it follows that the increased facilities of transport had 

 increased the number travelling relatively to the papulation 45 times: that 

 is to say, that for every journey which an inhabitant of Glasgow or Paisley 

 took in 1814 he took 45 journeys in 1843. These results, I conceive, place 

 it beyond a doubt that we should spare no effort to make railway travelling 

 cheap and within the reach of all classes. 



Now, there is only one true way of encouraging cheap travelling, and that 

 is by keeping down the original cost, and the annual expenses of railways. 

 All the other contrivances which the public are inclined to trust, such as 

 legislative restriction on profits, and so on, are mere quackery. Even com- 

 petition is inapplicable to railways, and is not to be relied on." Mr. R. 

 Stephenson, the engineer, put the whole case into one sentence when he 

 said, to " have combination is practicable — competition is impossible." The 

 experience of all railway competition shows that this is true; when, tnere- 

 fore, under the plea of competition unnecessary outlay is being incurred, the 

 public may rest assured that they will ultimately suffer for it in the charges 

 they will have to pay. 



Mr. Hill Williams, the actuary, has compiled some useful tables,t to show 

 arithmetically " how far a remunerative charge for the conveyance of pas- 

 sengers and goods on railways is modified by the original cost" and other 

 circumstances. 



The following is an extract showing the effect of increased cost of con- 

 struction. — 



Total yearly traffic, number of passengers or tons of goods, 90,000. 



We see from this that the fixed charge on every ton of goods or passenger 

 must average 2d. per mile to return common interest on a railway costing 

 30,000/., whereas if the railway cost 20,000/. \\d. per mile would be suffi- 

 cient, and if it cost 15,000/. \d. per mile would be sufficient. 



After a series of similar observations, the author concludes as follows : — ■ 

 The result of the preceding inquiry is, it appears to me, on the whole satis- 

 factory. The railway system has doubled itself in the last three years. 

 Fares have been greatly reduced. Third-class passengers have largely in- 

 creased. The importance and value of the traffic in goods and cattle rela- 

 tively to the passenger traffic have become more apparent. The number of 

 trains is greater and the speed of some of the trains has been accelerated ; 

 and all this has been effected without any falling off in the average receipts 

 on each mile of railway in working, but with an increase probably sufficient 

 to meet the increase of the working expenses attendant on the increased 

 accommodation now afforded by railways : whatever falling off in dividends 



* Evidence Select Committee on Railway Act Enactments, 18-16. 



t Appendix No, 7, Select Committee on Railway Act Enactments, 1846. 



