The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-07-07
-NGlieri THAvEL EXPENSIVE.
I.h, q tc, ly T:aii Yer Passengers and
Frci-;t Are so High

tgh, Rte, ly I:aii Yer Passengers and
FREIGHT Are so t'ish
The eminent English railway author
itv. NJ. William NJ. Acworth. points out
many causes for the differences between
railways i'll this country and the United
states. The higher rate Of charges on
English roads are thus explained:
The very large capital outlay of Eng
lish railways is Of course II main rea-
ION of the high standard Of rates and
sares in England. Exactly how high
that standard is we have no means Of
knowing, for our railway statistics.
made up in a form that was laid down
by IN act of parliament about 30 years
back. carefully suppress the information
that 1t is most necessary for us to have.
Ton miles and passenger miles are not
here recorded. We know that each ton
of goods carried pays the railways on the
average about 60 cents. If we guess that
the average distance is abOut2 20 miles. we
arrive at an average rate of 2.4O 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 LIS per mile. which though
lower than the American average, is
higher than in any European country.
Such IA result seems very far from salts
factory. High cost of construction might
have justified a high range of rates and
fares at the outset. but year by year the
per mile of line open increases in den
sity, and yet the goods rates hardly come
down at all-in the last year or two their
tendency has been ell 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 ex-
pensive to work. They are becoming
more expensive year by year. In Amer
lea trainloads are mainly limited by the
capacity Of the engipes-ours by the
weight Of goods OF number of passengers
that have had time to accumulate in the
very short interval between one train
and another. Let me illustrate: If a
man is sailing from New York to Eu.
rope, he will choose his favOrite line OF
his fayorite boat. regardless of the time
of day or day Of the week at which il
starts. On the other hand, if the Man
haitian elevated We're to try to run it
trains only once in 10 minutes in the
slack hours of the day the street car;
would rob it of the bulk Of its passen
gers.
Now, in England our business is al
between places which in America would
a.. ,,rarlal os n1oca f,rafhar Nn cal
Manchester 1.-THE north Of England" We
Manchester is only i. hours from Lon
don. Consequently there must be train
between the two points at all hours o
the day. to suit the convenience of pas
seagers wanting to 90 at any time. Con
sequently. too. each train runs with yer.
much less than a trainload OF passen
gers. Then these trains must be run a
high speeds. for though a few minute
more or less are of little Importance in
Journey of hundreds of miles, a quartz
of am hour out of four hours il "a yer
considerable percentage. High speed
mean few stops, and few stops mean ad
ditional trains to serve the second clas
stations. Then high speeds and frequen
expresses for passengers mean hl9
speeds and short trains for good-tha
is. half loaded-engines. for al engin
loaded 70 its fun capacity 10Y 5
slowly--occupies the line. that is. for $
long IL period-that it is impossible t
find room for it.
But it would not be true to say tina
the goods are worked at high speed sim
ply for the convenience Of the railwa
management. On the contrary. the dc
mand for speed III the case of merchaI
disc traffic is fully abreast of that in tn
case of passengers. Broadly, it may b
said that the English goods service i
based on the superstition that, betwee.
important towns at least. whatever j
handed to the railway company at tn
forwarding station owe night will be dc
livered to the c~onsignee the first thin
next morning. Now, a service such "a
this. in the nature Of things, can neve
be a cheap one,-Engineering Magazine