The record-union., 1893-04-17
ENGLISH TRAVEL EXPENSIVE
why Rates BY Rail, for Passengers and
Freight, Are So High,

In the Engineering Magazine the emf
nent English railway lawyer, William
NJ. Acworth, points out many causes for
the differences between railways in his
country and the United States. The
higher rate OF charges on English roads
are thus explained:
The very large capital outlay of Eng
Ilsh railways is OF course one main reason
OF the high standard of rates and fares in
England. Exactly how high that stand
ara IS we have no means of knowing, for
our railway statistics, made up in a form
that was laid down by Act of Parliament
about thirty years back, carefully sup
press the information that it is most nee
essary for US to have. Ton-miles and
passenger-m are not here record
ed. We know that each ton OF goods car
RED pays the railways on the average
about sixty cents. If we guess that the
average distance is about twenty-five
miles, we arrive at an average rate of 2.40
cents per ton-mile, which is not very far
from three times the average rate in the
United States. So in the case of passen-
gers we may guess that the average fare
IS about l.15 cents per mile, which, though
lower than the American average, is
higher than in any European country.
Such a result seems very tar from salts
factory. High cost of construction might
nave justified nigh range of rates and
1ares at The outset, but year by year the
trathc per mile OF line open increases in
density. and yet the goods rates hardly
come down at all-in the last year or two
their tendency has been all the other
way-whiIe the passenger fares only come
down very slowly.
And yet the explanation is not far to
seek. Our services have always been ex-
penslve to work; they are becoming more
expensive year by year. In America
train loads are mainly limited by the ca
pacity of the engines; ours by the weight
OF goods or number of passengers that
have had time to accumulate in the very
short interval between one train and an
other. Let me illustrate: If man is
sailing from New York to Europe he
Will choose his favorite line or his favor
lite boat, regardless OF the time of day or
the day of the week at which it starts
On the other hand, if the Manhattan Ele-
waited were to try to run its trains only
once in ten minutes in the slack hours of
the day, the street cars would rob it of
the bulk OF its passengers.
Now, in England our business is all be-
tween places which, in America, would
De regarded as close together. We call
Manchester the north CT England" vet
Manchester is only four and half hours
from London. Consequently there must
be trains between the two points at all
hours OF the day to suit the convenience
of passengers wanting to go at any time
consequently, too, each train runs with
very much less than a train load of pas
sengers. Then these trains must be run
at high speeds; for, though a few minutes
more or less are of little importance in a
journey of hundreds of miles, a quarter
OF an hour out of four hours is a very
considerable percentage. High speeds
mean few stops, and few stops mean adj
d1tlonal trains to serve the second-class
stations. Then high speeds and frequent
expresses for passengers mean high
speeds and short trains for goods-that is,
half-loaded engines, for an engine loaded
to It's full capacity moves so slowly-oc-
cupies the line, that is, for so long a pc
riod-that 1t is impossible to find room
for it.
But it would not be true to say that the
goods are worked at high speed simply
for the convenience of the railway man
agement. On the contrary, the demand
for speed in the case of merchandise
traffic is fully abreast of that in the case of
passengers. Broadly, it may be said
that the English goods-service is based
on the supposition that, between import
ant towns at least, whatever is handed to
the railway company at the forwarding
station over night will be delivered to
the consignee the first thing next morn
ing. Now, service such as this, in the
nature of things, can never be a cheap
one.