704 



TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G 



The capital invested in the 102 miles of tube railways in London is a little over 

 25,000,000?. 



The total number of passengers carried (exclusive of season tickets) on the 

 138 miles of electrical track during the year 1908 was nearly 342 millions, being 

 roughly one-third of the total number of passengers carried on all the railways 

 of England and Wales during the same period. 



The average cost of working this traffic is 223d. per train-mile. This figure 

 includes the service of the lifts, which is presumably returned with the traffic 

 expenses. The charges work out in this way : — 



Table IV. 



Average Working Cost per Train-mile of the Electric Railways worked wholly or 

 mainly by Electricity in England and Wales for the Year 1908. 



Pence per train-mile. 



Locomotive power 8'40 



Eepairs and renewals of carriages and waggons . . . 150 

 Maintenance of permanent way ... 



Traffic expenses . 

 General charges 



Rates and taxes 



Government duty 



Compensation 



Legal and miscellaneous 



Total 



5-22 



T52 



2-36 



0088 



0-116 



0-75 



22-35 



The corresponding total receipts were 38'65d. per train-mile. The working 

 expenses are thus 58 per cent, of the total receipts. Comparing this with the 

 figures given above for the whole of the lines in England and Wales, it will 

 be seen that the cost for locomotive power on the electric railways appears to be 

 about two-thirds of the cost on steam lines per mile run, the cost for repairs 

 and renewals of carriages and waggons about one-half, and the cost for traffic 

 expenses about one-half. 



The two kinds of working are not, however, strictly comparable, as all the 

 conditions of traffic in the two cases are different and the length of the electric 

 lines is relatively so small that the problems which arise out of the transmission of 

 electric power over long distances are excluded. The traffic expenses and the cost 

 of repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons, general charges, &c, are 

 practically independent of the kind of power used for locomotive purposes, and, 

 moreover, the difference in weight of electric trains and the steam-hauled trains 

 is on the average so great that no comparison can be instituted without ton-mile 

 statistics. * 



Method of Working. 



With two exceptions the method of working the electrified lines of this country 

 is in the main the same. A third conductor rail is laid on insulators fixed to the 

 ordinary track sleepers, and is maintained throughout the whole of its length at as 

 nearly as possible a pressure of 600 volts, except in a few cases where the pressure 

 is 500 or 550 volts. Collecting shoes sliding along the rails are fixed to the 

 trains, and through them current is supplied to the armatures fixed to or geared 

 with the axles. The current flows through the armatures back to the stations 

 or substations through the running rails, which are bonded for the purpose, or 

 sometimes through a fourth rail carried on insulators fixed to the track sleepers 

 as in the cases of the District and Metropolitan Railways. 



Differences in the equipment arise out of the geographical necessities of the 

 distribution. For a short line the power is produced at a central station and is 



1 Much valuable information regarding the cost of converting the line between 

 Liverpool and Southport from steam to electric working will be found in 

 Mr. Aspinall's presidential address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 



