698 



TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 



Table III. 



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 wero 

 twenty-two and a half times as much as those of the London and Birmingham 

 Railway in 1840, 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, how- 

 ever, 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 Birming- 

 ham 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 obligation 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, 



