The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-16 00:00:00

Tl.le Great English Railways.

THE GREAT EASTERN.

Next on our list of English system stands the
Great Eastern. This company has never occupied
a firsteclass position among its fellows, and, as the
Eastern Counties, is gave rise to endless complaints,
springing from real or imaginary causes. The one
gine'. Eastern Counties enterprise consisted of a line
from London to Colchester, opened from 15 to 20
years since, and 51 miles in length. Indifferent as
was the success obtained by the Eastern Counties
Company, it secured the lead among the other rail.
way undertakings of Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, and
Cambridgeshire; and by 1848 it had insured the com-
mand of a through route from London to Norwich
Yarmouth. and Lowestoft. About this time the
Eastern Union Company made considerable efforts to
acquire an independent position; it had extended
the original Eastern Counties line from London to
Colchester to Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds, and Nor.
with, and varicu3 schemes were resorted to to deve.
lope and maintain an independent traffic. The East-
ern Union Company had, however, no communica-
tion with the metropolis, but stopped at Colchester,
and after five years of unavailing efforts, the Eastern
Union deemed it advisable to consent in 1854 to a
provisional fusion for eight years. 1n1862 this fusion
became definitive ; and the Eastern Counties, which
had acquired the command also of the East Suffolk,
the Northern and Eastern, the
.Newmarket, and
other lines—while it had also established an imperil
taut communication with the midland and northern
districts by a branch from Ely to Peterborough,
opened in 1847—assumed the name of the " Great
Eastern," its various allies being, like itself, lost in
the new designation. The progress of the general
undertaking will be seen by the following recapitue
lation of the miles worked by the company—as the
Eastern Counties in 1861, and the Great Eastern
in 1862 and 1863—during the last three years :
Dec. ,31, 1861, 647 (418 double and 229 single) ;
Dec. 31, 1862, 645 (430 double and 215 single) ; and
Dec. 31, 1863, 695 (403 double and 292 single).
The additional way thus brought into operation in
the two years was 48 miles. Of the 695 miles
worked D,c, 31, 1863, 665 (403 double and 262
single) belonged to the Great Eastern proper (the
expression " Great Eastern" including the Colches-
ter, Stour Valley, Sudbury and Halstead, the
Lowestoft, the Northern and Eastern, the Royston
and Hitchin, and the Waveney Valley). The re-
maining 30 miles are made up of the following lines,
still retaining an independent financial existence,
but worked by the Great Eastern Company :
Lynn and Hunstanton, 15 miles ; Tendring Hun-
dred, 2 ini.es ; and Ware, Hadham, and Buntingford,
13 miles. All these lines, as well as others still
projected or in course of construction, will probably
become fused sooner or later in the Great Eastern
Company, which has an investment in each; and,
for the purposes of this article, they may be assumed
to form part already of the general undertaking.
With these necessary explanatory observations, we
proceed to state the traffic acquired, the working
expenses incurred, and the profits realised by the
Great Eastern and its allies in 1861, 1862, and
1863 :

Year. Revenue. Expenses. Profits.
1861 .. £1,394,114 .. £719,806 .. £674,308
1862 .. 1,427,701 .. 720,661 .. 707,040
1863 .. 1,497,405 .. 777,502 719,903

These figures point, on the whole, to a more hope
ful future ; but it will be seen that the working
charges, which remained nearly stationary in 1862,
experienced a very large expansion last year, the
general result being that while the gross revenue
increased in 1863 to the extent of £103,291 as corn-
pared with 1861, the net profit was only aug-
mented by £45,595 during the two years. The
ratio of the working charges to the traffic receipts
was thus 5.1.65 per cent. in 1861, while in 1863 it
was 51.90 per cent. Instead, therefore, of the work•
ing charges having beer. reduced, they increased in
the two years to the extent of 025 per cent. It
should b 3 observed in explanation, in some slight
degree, of the high rate of the current expenditure
of the Great Eastern, that the outlay for locomotive
power included also a sum of £8,731 incurred with
respect to the London, Tilbury, and Southend line,
for which the company supplies engines and rolling
stock under contract. Some allowance should also
be made for the maintenance and renewal of the
rolling stock engaged upon this line. As, however,
the company is repaid for the assistance thus ren-
dered the London, Tilbury, and Southend, and
possibly makes some profit by the operation, the
ratio of the working charges cannot be reduced to
any appreciable extant, and must be set down at
about 51 percent. This high preportiva of the cur-
rent outgoings,tbe feebleness of the traffi: upon par•
tions of the reseatc traversing thinly populated and
unprogressive agricultural districts, and the far too
lavish outlay on capital account in the first instance,
explain the meagre dividends which year by year
are distributed to the proprietors of the ordinary
stock. The directors are so fully convinced of the
irr mense difficulties with which they have to con-
tend, in respect to the absence of a large coal and
mineral traffic, and the high rates which they have
to pay for fuel, that during the last Session of
Parliament they made strenuous exertions to
obtain an extension which would have connected
the system with the South Yorkshire coal basin.
This project, styled the Great Eastern (Northern
Junction), was stoutly and successfully opposed by
the Great Northern, which was alarmed at what it
regarded as a formidable invasion of its territory.
. .

The directors of the Great Eastern propose to renew
the application for the extension in the Session of
1865, notwithstanding that the Great Northern is
energetically filling up the tract of country which
the Great Eastern proposes to occupy ; and having
regard to the prosperity of the Great Northern and
the depression of the Great Eastern, so far as its
very considerable amount of ordinary stock is con.
cerned—having regard also to the importance of the
industrial district of East London—it really seems
but reasonable that if the proprietors of the Great

Eistern choose to adventure £1,000,000 or
£2,000,000 in this attempt to extricate themselves
from their present difficulties, they should be per-
mitted to do so.

After this rather long preamble we may state in
precise detail the financial position of the Great
Eastern at the close of 1863. The total amount which
the company had then raised was £23,220,828—
viz., £18,522,888 by shares and £4,697,940 by
loans. Of the amount raised by shares, £9,181.527
was ordinary stock, upon which the unsatisfactory
dividend of 1 per cant. was declared for the twelve
months, In 1861 the ordinary stock of the Eastern
Counties received £2 6s per cent., and in 1862 the
ordinary stock of the Great Eastern received—the
greater part 21- per cent„ and the remainder £2 is
4d per cent. As the dividends of the Eastern Coun•
ties and its allies upon their ordinary capital have
never reached a much more satisfactory level—ex-
cept during the Hudsonian days,when the amazing
resources of the Railway King sent Eastern Coun-
ties' proprietors rejoicing a year or two with 5 per
cent. paid out of capital—it is not surprising that
the Great Eastern now finds itself burdened with
preference stock amounting in the aggregate
to .0,508,688. Upon this total dividends
were paid as follows in 1863 : 7 per
cent. upon £80,653 ; 6 per cent. upon
£1,161,417,
upon£23 , 750.
per cent. upon £105,000, 5 per cent.
£675,596, 4 per
per cent upon upon £5,683,457, 41 per cent upon
31
cent upon £788,815, and
Debenture stock, receiving 4 per cent, was also in
existence at the close of 1863 to the cmcunt of
£832,673, making up the total of £18,522,888 pre.
viously indicated as having been raised by shares.
The debenture debt of £4,697,940, outstanding on
December 31, 1863, was floating at the annexed
rates of interest—X.4s9,ss4 at 4 per cent,
£1,711,803 at 4 per cent, £2,313,773 at 4i- per
cent, £73,235 at 41 per cent, and £130,575 at 5
per cent. The credit of the company has somewhat
improved during the past two years, the amount of
5 per cent deheuturis outstanding having been
materially reduced, while one sum of £50,000,
which, at the close of 1861, was ectu bearing
interest at 6 per cent, has been wholly paid off.
Even now, however, the position of the debenture
debt compares unfavourably with that of the loan
capital of other great companies, although care and
patience may perhaps bring the hulk of it down
is four or fiva years to 4 per cent, which
roust be considered the ordinary interest for rail-