ADDRESS. XCV 



Looking at the vast growth of railway traffic, one measure occurs to me as 

 conducive to the safety of railway passengers, and likely to be demanded 

 some day : it is to construct between important places railways which should 

 carry passengers only or coals only, or be set apart for some special separation 

 of traffic ; though there wiU be some difficulty in accomplishing this. Laud- 

 owners, through whose property such lines would pass, would probably wish 

 to use such lines for general purposes. Nevertheless it may have to be tried 

 some day. 



It would be instructive, were it practicable, to compare the relative propor- 

 tion of accidents by railway and by the old stage-coaches ; but no records that 

 I am aware of exist of the latter that would enable such a comparison to be 

 made. It is practicable to make some sort of comparison between the acci- 

 dents in the earlier days of our own railways and the accidents occurring at a 

 later date. 



The Board of Trade have unfortunately abandoned the custom, which they 

 adopted from 1852 to 1859, of returning the passenger mileage, which is given 

 in the German returns, and is the proper basis upon which to found the pro- 

 portion of accidents, and not on the number of passengers without any regard 

 to distance travelled, which has altered very much, the average journey per 

 passenger being nearly half in 1873 what it was in 1846. 



It would be erroneous to compare the proportions of accidents to passengers 

 carried in various years, even if the correct number of passengers travelling 

 were given. But a figure is always omitted from the Board of Trade return, 

 which makes the proportion of accidents to passengers appear larger than it is ; 

 this is the number of journeys performed by season-ticket holders. Some 

 estimate could be made of the journeys of season-ticket holders by dividing 

 the receipts by an estimated average fare, or the companies could make an 

 approximate estimate, and the passenger mileage could be readily obtained 

 by the railway companies from the tickets. These additions would greatly 

 add to the value of the railway returns as statistical documents, and render 

 the deductions made from them correct. 



Though it has been a work of labour, I have endeavoured to supply these 

 deficiencies, and I believe the results arrived at maybe taken as fairly accurate*. 



From the figures so arrived at, it appears the passenger mileage has doubled 

 between 1861 and 1873 ; and at the rate of increase between 1870 and 1873 

 it would become double what it was in 1873 in twelve years fi-om that time, 

 namely in 1885. 



The number of passengers has doubled between 1864 and 1873, and at the 

 rate of increase between 1870 and 1873 it would become double what it waa 

 in 1873 in eleven years and a half, or in 1885. 



It must, however, be remembered that the rate of increase since 1870, though 

 very regular for 1871, 1872, and 1873, is greater than in previous years, 



* See Table in Appendixi 



