The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-02 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The arrangements for raising the Britannia tube are
now complete.
The number of miles of railway open on the 31st of
December, 1848, was 5,1261; and the number of miles
open on the 30th of June, 1849, was 5,4471.
The revenue of the railways of the United Kingdom
cannot now be put down at less than £12,000,000 an-
nually.
The total loss upon the atmospheric experiment on the
South Devon Railway, after deducting the estimated
amount to be realised from the sale of the materials on
hand, is 351,000.
The deflection perceptible from the weight of a train of
200 tons on the high-level bridge over the river Tyne,
recently opened, does not exceed three-tenths of an inch,
the weight being a much greater one than the bridge will
ever be required to bear.
A curious sale took place at an auction mart on Thurs-
day, namely, of six mortgage debentures of the Oxford,
Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Company, the
property of a contractor on the line. They were disposed
of at a reduction of eighty-five per cent.
The traffic tables, which constitute an essential part of
our paper, exhibit a remarkable decrease in the receipts of
railways for the previous week. With an increase of up-
wards of 600 miles of railway, the railway receipts were
about eight per cent. less than for the corresponding
period of last year.
The amount of traffic for the last week, on 5038 miles of
railway, was £233,299, thus accounted for :—.£119,536
for the conveyance of passengers only, £60,812 for the
carriage of goods, and the remainder of £52,951 for pas-
sengers and goods together, not respectively apportioned ;
being an increase of £lB2l over the corresponding week
of last year, when the mileage was £4134. The average
earnings per mile were £46, whilst last year they were
£56.

EXTENSIVE RAILWAY ROBBERIES.—On Friday, in-
formation was received by the metropolitan police that,
during the passage of the up-train from Normanton to
York, some expert thief made his way from the passenger
carriage to the luggage van, and cut open a carpet bag,
from which was taken 45 gold watches, value £B5O ; 39
silver watches, value £230; 18 gold chains, value £135 ;
and miscellaneous jewellery. Also, that a gentleman bad
been plundered of £2OO in Bank of England notes whilst
standing on the platform at Doncaster.

RAILWAY COMPETITION,—Within the last fortnight,
we understand, the London and Northwestern, in con-
junction with the Lancashire and Yorkshire, have com-
menced carrying goods between Liverpool and Manchester,
a distance of thirty-one miles, at the ruinously low figure
of Gd. per ton, where they used to have Bs. We further
hear that the Gd. includes the expenses of collection and
delivery. The cause is a competition with the East Lan-
cashire and the canal. At a very low estimate it has been
calculated that every ton costs the companies 6s. 3d., so
that they are losing ss. 9d. on every Gd. earned, or 860
per cent. With these negative gains the less business
they do the better. We should advise all applicants for
sending goods to be told, " Quite full, can't take in more
goods for another month." How long this monstrous
competition is to continue the directors only know, but
the lose must be frightful on both sides.—Herapatii.

L STANDARD.