The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-09-16
BRITISH RAILROADS.
The Capital. Mileage and Business of En-
glish Railroads.


glish Railroads.
The Blue Book of the British Board
Of Trade, recently issued, shows that at
the close of 1874 there were in England,
Scotland and Ireland Is, 449 miles of
railway. OF these England had 1888
miles of double track and 4, 429 miles of
single track: Scotland had l, 048 miles of
double and 1862 miles of single track,
and Ireland had 500 miles of double and
1,e19 miles of single track. Twenty
years ago there were in the United
Kingdom only 1858 miles of railway,
of which 6, 103 miles were double and
1850 single lines. The increase of sin
gle lines of rail in Scotland and Ireland
is good illustration of the wise adapta
ton OF means to ends-the thlnly popu-
lated regions o. these countries have
been furnished with such railways as
they absolutely needed, and with no
more. The gross capital invested in
railways in the United Kingdom at pres
ent is f609, 895, 931, OF So, 049, ATS, 655.
Of this immense sum, exceeding the
debt of the United States by nearly a
billion of dollars, England has the lions
share, f508, 726, 428; Scotland has Ell,
327, 40; while poor Ireland follows far
In the rear with only 929, 842, 1868. About
40 per cent. of the whole, or 9248, $685.,
241, is in ordinary stock, while the re-
naming 1881 ,367, SOL is represented by
various forms of indebtedness. The
capital has increased in twenty years by
9222, 657, 634, and thus has nearly
doubled. The number Of passengers
conveyed by all the railways in 1874 was
AT, $40, All, an increase of 366, $3.50, 246
in twenty years.
The total receipts for passengers in
1874 were 922, OLA 1913, which is an ay-
erage of only about IL pence per pas
senger. This somewhat startling fact
gives apparent strength to the opinion
that It all the railways of the kingdom
were taken over by the government it
would be possible without loss to carry
passengers as letters are now carried
that is, at a very low and uniform rate
| for any distance. If every passenger
1874 he'd paid one shilling for each jour
ney, the income from this source would
have been e23, 1892, 020, or 1,877, 702
more than the amount actually received.
The vast number of people, however,
who travelled upon the Underground and
other metropolitan lines of London for
short distances at rates ranging from
Id to Sd per journey, must be taken
into account In this calculation, as we'll
as the fact that in all the densely popu-
lated districts In England the people
avail themselves of those facilities for
travelling short distances which are, as q
rule, unknown in Ireland and Scotland.
] Still, while the payment received from
each passenger in England in 1874 av-
eraged only 10 65d, or about 81 cents,
it did not exceed IL It'd in Scotland nor
| It'd in Ireland. The vast impetus which
would be given to travel If one could go
from London to Edinburgh or Dublin
for sixpence, or perhaps for three pence,
cannot be safely calculated.
! The total receipts of all the British
railways in 1874 were ESQ, 255, us, an
increase of 939, O39, 961 as compared with
the receipts of twenty years ago. OF
these receipts 42.01 per cent came from
passengers. The government paid
| 9655, 1913 for the transmission of it's
mails the remaining receipts came from
the transportation of goods. The whole
working cost of the roads was e32, 612,-
| 712, and the net receipts were EGG, 643,-
O43. The railway companies paid 1885,
876 as compensation fof personal in
iuries, e251, 266 for damages to goods,
and 9315, 013 for law and Parliamentary
expenses. They had 1886 locomotives
and 379, 899 carriages. If all these loco
motives and carriages were made into
one train it would be 1856 miles long
and it would carry, without crowding,
about $1,000, 900 OF people.