The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-19
ENGLISH RAILWAYS.
Why Travel Is More Expensive Across tn
Water Than Here.

! Water Than Here.
/ The eminent English railway author
| ity, William Acworth, points out many
| causes for the differences between rail
| ways in the his country and the United
| States The higher rates of charges on
! English roads are thus explained;
THE very large capital outlay of
| English railways is of course one main
reason of the high standard of rates
/ and fares in England. Exactly how
| high that standard is we have no means
| of knowing, for our railway statistics
made up in form that was laid down
by act of parliament about thirty years
back, carefully suppresses the informa-
ton that it is most necessary for us to
have.
''Ton miles and passenger miles are
not here recorded. We know that each
ton of goods carried paid the railways
on the average about 60 cents. If we
guess that the average distance is
about twenty-five miles we arrive at an
average rate of "a cents per ton mile,
which is not very far from three times
the average "a te in the United States. So
in the case of passengers we may guess
that the average rate is about l. - cents
per mile, which, though lower than the
American average, is higher than in
any European country. Such a result
seems very far from satisfactory. High
cost of construction might have justi-
fed high range of rates and fares at
the outset. but year by year the traffic
per mile of line open increases in densi-
ty, and yet the goods rates hardly
come down at all-in the last year or
two their tendency has been all the
other way-while the passenger fares
only come down very slowly.
And yet the explanation is not far
to seek. Our services have always been
expensive to work; they are becoming
more expensive year by year. In
America train loads are mainly limited
by the capacity of the engines-ours
by the weight of goods or the number
of passengers that have had time to ac-
cumulate in the very short interval be-
tween one train and another. Let me
illustrate: If man is sailing from
New York to Europe, he VIII choose
his favorite line or his favorite boat.
regardless of the time of day or day of
the week at which il starts. On the
other hand, If the Manhattan Elevated
was to try to run its trains only once
in ten minutes in the slack hours of the
day the street cars would rob 1t of the
bulk of its passengers
Now, in England our business is all
between places which in America
would be regarded as close together.
We call Manchester the north of
England, vet Manchester is only four
and one-half hours from London. Con-
seQuently there must be trains between
the two points at all hours OF the day,
to suit the convenience of passengers
wanting 10 20 at any time. CoEse-
quently, too. each train runs with
very much less than a train load
of passengers. Then these trains -nust
be run at high speeds; for, though 4
few minutes more less are OF little i'm
portance in a Journey of hundreds Of
miles, quarter of an hour out Of four !
hours is a very considerable percent |
age. High speeds mean few stops, and /
few stops mean additional trains 10 +
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 I
engines; for an engine loaded 10 its 1
full capacity moves SO slowly occupies /
the line, that is, for 50 long a period !
that il is impossible TO find room for L. 1
But 1t would not be true to say that 1
the goods arc worked at high speed 1
simply for the convenience Of the rail /
way management On the contrary. the
demand for speed in the case Of NOR
chandise traffic Is fully abreast Of that
in the case Of passengers Broadly. i
may DC said that the English goods
service Is based on the suppos!tiou that.
between important towns at least,
whatever is handed 70 the railway
company at the forwarding station
over night viii - delivered 20 the con
signee the first thing next morning.
Now. a servtce such a. this in The
nature of things. can never be cheap
one Chicago Times