Septemijer 29, 1910] 



NATURE 



409 



Locomotive power absorbs an amount about equal to the 

 traffic expenses ; and companies actually pay in rates and 

 taxes a sum nearly equal to the whole amount required 

 to maintain the rolling-stock in an efficient state. 



To the right is shown a scale, the divisions of which 

 represent an amount estimated in pence per train-mile 

 corresponding to i per cent, of the average dividend. 

 This shows that if the whole of the locomotive power 

 could be obtained for nothing, the average dividend would 

 only be increased by ij per cent. Reckoned on the 

 ordinary stock alone, however, the increase would be 

 about three times this amount. 



It may be of interest at this stage to compare the 

 financial position and the cost of the working of railways 

 in their earlier days with the state of things now. For 

 this purpose the position of the old London and Birming- 

 ham Railway is compared with the position of the London 

 and North-Western Railway, the system into which it has 

 grown. The years selirted are 1840 and 1908. 



I have taken out the cost per mile of working the 

 traffic of the London and Birmingham Railway from some 

 accounts given in Winshaw's " Railways." The details 

 are grouped somewhat differently in the list just given, 

 but in the main the various items may be compared. 



The number of train-miles on the London and Birming- 

 ham Railway recorded for the year January to December, 

 1839, is 714,998. The accounts given are for the year 

 June, 1839, to June, 1840. The mileage record is thus 

 not strictly comparable with the expense account, but it 

 may be regarded as covering the same period with sufficient 

 accuracy for our purpose. 



The costs work out as follows :— 



T.^BLE n. 



Cost per Train-mile for ihe Year ending June, 1840, 

 London and Birmingham Railway. 



Pence 

 p r mile. 



Locomotive power 232 



Maintenance of way 272 



Traffic expenses, including repairs to 



waggons ... ... ... ... ... 25-9 



General charges, including legal charges ... 4-5 

 Rates and taxes... ... ... ... ... 45 



Government duty 7-65 



.Accident account ... ... ... ... ... 0-35 



Total 93-30 



The receipts amounted to 23 id. per train-mile. Hence 

 the working expenditure w'as 40 per cent, of the gross 

 receipts. 



The gross receipts for the year ending June 30, 1840, 

 were 687,104/., which, after deducting charges for loans, 

 rents, and depreciation of locomotives, carriages, and 

 waggons, enabled a dividend of 91 per cent, to be paid on 

 the ordinary stock. 



There are two noteworthy facts in these old accounts. 

 First, the allowance for depreciation on the rolling-stock 

 of nearly 4 per cent, of the receipts. Secondly, the fact 

 that the cost of working the traffic is given per ton-mile. 

 This method of estimating the cost of working has gradu- 

 ally fallen into desuetude on British railways. One com- 

 pany only at the present time records ton-mile statistics. 

 Quite recently (in iqoo) the committee appointed by the 

 Board of Trade to make inquiries with reference to the 

 form and scope of the accounts and statistical returns 

 rendered by the railway companies under the Railway 

 Regulation Acts have had the question of ton-mile and 

 passenger-mile statistics under consideration. There was 

 considerable difference of opinion concerning the matter, 

 and in the end the committee did not recommend that the 

 return of ton-mile and passenger-mile statistics should be 

 made compulsory on the railway companies. 1 



Returning to the London and Birmingham Railway 

 accounts, the actual figures given by Mr. Bury, the loco- 

 motive engineer, were, for the year ending December, | 



1839:— 



Passenger Trains. — Toii-miles, 21,159,796, giving an 

 average of 542,533 ton-miles per engine at 0-86 lb. of coke | 

 per ton-mile costing O'lyd. | 



Goods Trains. — 17,527,439 ton-miles, giving an average | 



NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 



of 584,247 per engine at 0-57 lb. of coke per ton-mile- 

 costing o-iid. per ton-mile. 



Table IIL shows various amounts and quantities in 

 comparison with one another. Beneath the actual figures 

 are placed proportional figures, the London and Birming- 

 ham item being in every case denoted bv unity. 



Table IIL 

 Comparison of Capital, Receipts, Miles Open, Train-miles, 

 and Cost of Working between the London and' 

 Birmingham Railway for the Year ending June, 1840, 

 and the London and North-Western Railway for the 

 Year ending December, 1908. 



The comparison brings out some curious facts. For 

 instance, it will be noticed that the gross receipts of the 

 London and North-Western Railway in 1908 were twenty- 

 two and a half times as much as those of the London and 

 Birmingham Railway in 1S40, and that the track mileage 

 open was about twenty-two times as great. The money 

 earned per mile of track open is thus practically the same 

 after a lapse of seventy years. To earn the same amount 

 per mile of track open, however, the trains of the London 

 and North-Western Railway had in 1908 to run 68-3 times 

 the number of train-miles that the trains of the London 

 and Birmingham Railway ran in 1840. That is to say, 

 in order to earn a sovereign a London and North-Western 

 train has now to run three times the distance which it 

 was necessary for a London and Birmingham train to 

 run to earn the same amount. 



Another point to notice is that although the mileage and 

 the receipts per mile of track open have each increased 

 in the same proportion, yet the capital has increased at a 

 greater rate, being on the total amount twenty-four times 

 as much as in 1840, and the stock and share capital has 

 increased twenty-eight times. So that with the necessity 

 of running three times the train-mileage to obtain the 

 same return per mile of track open, there runs the obliga- 

 tion to pay interest on an ordinary stock which has been 

 increased in a greater proportion than the mileage and in 

 a greater proportion than the earning power of the line. 

 Lower dividends are therefore inevitable. The cost of 

 working, per train-mile has decreased gradually to about 

 half its value in 1840, but, at the same time, the receipts 

 per train-mile have dwindled to one-third of the amount 

 in 1840. 



These figures show that a more conservative system of 

 financing the railways might have been adopted in the 

 earlier days with advantage. If, when the receipts per 



