The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-01-14
ITO be continued. I
BRITISH RAILROADS,

There are $4,000 miles of railroad in Great
Britain and $4,000 miles in the United States.
The capital invested in the former is 3539 900
900 and in the latter S4,900,0OO,OOO The cost
per mile of the British system is $196, 900, and
of the American $4,000. The net earnings
of the American system are 1885, 900 and of
the British system $156,000,00O. The most strik-
ing feature of the above figures is the remarkable
discrepancy in the cost for each mile of road in
the two systems. 1t is not likely that single
line in the United States represents the expendi-
ture of $4,000 mile, which is the average
cost of British railroads. The great cost of
British railroads is caused by their fine road
beds, costly stone bridges, long cuts, heavy fills,
and massive stations, and the large sums paid
for right of way into large towns and through
rural districts where ordinary lands are held
sometimes as high as thousand dollars an acre
The largest dividend paid by any British rail-
road last year was 103 per cent, returned by the
Maryport and Carlisle line, operated by the Great
Western Company. 1t is a small road, only Al
miles long, and with capital of about So 5OO,-
900. Of the great English lines the most pros
porous is the Northeastern, which last year paid
81 per cent. on almost S1OO,0OO,0OO of ordinary
stock, which now sells in the market at about
$172 for each share of 500. Like the United
States, Great Britain is now passing through an
era of railroad consolidation. Six corporations
the London and Northwestern, the Great West
ern, the Great Northern, the Midland, the North
eastern, and the Caledonian-control already
1888 miles Of single and double track and
81 ,84O,O O0O0 of invested capital. 1t may be
1u tnI OF holt Of fho rbo1
system of Great Britain is under their manage
ment One of them alone-the London and
Northwestern Company-controls an invested
capital of $50OOO000O, and each of them has
absorbed twenty or thirty subordinate lines,
great and small. So far as can be Judged. how
ever. this swift and wide consolidation is neither
alarming nor distasteful to the British public.
The newspapers speak rather approvingly of it
on the plea of improved service, and no cry of
monopoly" has been raised.
correspondent of the New York Eyeninq
Post who gives in his letter these and other in
teresting facts concerning the British railroads,
attacks the idea prevalent in this country that
trains on them run with much greater speed
than is the case on the railroads of other coun-
tries. The famous Flying Dutchman" on the
Great Western Railroad makes the run from
London to Exeter, 1874 miles, in four hours and
fourteen minutes. With four stops it attains
speed of almost 46 miles an hour A train on
the Great Northern road, the Leeds express"
does better. 1t makes the distance from London
to Leeds 1877 miles, in four hours-almost a.
miles an hour, with four stops The train car
rying the Irish mail to Holyhead over the Lon
don and Northwestern line and dubbed years
ago "The Wild Irishman," has now sunk into
obscurity, with it's rate of little
less than 40 miles an hour. The competition
over several of the great lines to the populous
Scotch cities leads to some fast schedules The
morning express ON the Great Northern road
makes only four stops along the line from Lon
don to Edinburgh, 1876 miles, and flies over the
whole distance in nine hours, with an average
rate of almost "A miles an hour; and on the Mid
land line the night Scotch express runs the 425
miles to Glasgow with speed of 4O8 miles an
hour. These are the four swiftest trains in Eng
land, and, as will be seen, the Leeds express with
its rate of AZ miles an hour, is the 1eetest of all
Three out OF the four trains probably beat the |
running time for the same distance of any other |
roads IN the world. They are all, however, far