The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1893-10-27
eNoLIsH Travel EXPENSIVE.



Freight Are SO High.
The eminent English railway author
ity, Mr.. William NJ. Acworth. points out
many causes for the differences between
railways in 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 ene main rea-
son 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 Ia a form that was laid down
by an act Of parliament about 80 years
back, carefully suppress the information
that ills 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 go cents. If we guess that
the average distance Is about oo5 miles, we
arrive at an average rate Of g. 40 centsper
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 1.75 per mile, which though
lower than the American average, is
higher than in any European country.
Such result seems very far from salts
factory. High cost of construction might
have justified high range Of rates and
fares at the outset, but year by year the
per mile of line open increases in dem
sity, 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 ex-
pensive to work. They are becoming
more expensive year by year. In Amer
lea trainloads are mainly limited by the
capacity Of the engines--ours by the
weight Of goods ornumber of passengers
that have had time to accumulate In the
very short interval between one train
and another. Let me illustrate: If q
man is sailing from New York to Eu-
rope, he will choose his fayorite line or
his favorite boat, regardless Of the time
Of day or day Of the week at which II
starts. On the other hand, if the Man.
haitian elevated were to try to run itI
trains only once in 10 minutes In thu
lslack hours Of the day the street car
/ ls0nld rob itof the bulk Of its passen
gers.
/ Now, In England our business is al
| between places which in America wollt
be regarded as close together. We cal
Manchester s'the north Of England ye
Manchester is only Al 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
sengers wanting to go at any time. Con
sequently, too, each train runs with very
much less than O trainload Of passen
gers. Then these trains must be run nt
high speeds, for though few minutes
more or less are of little Importance in I
journey of hundreds Of miles, q quarter
of an hour ont of four hours is avery
considerable percentage. High speeds
mean few stops, and few stops mean ad
ditional trains to serve the second class
stations. Then high speeds and frequent
i expresses for passengers mean high
speeds and short trains for good--thal
is, half loaded-e engines, for an engine
loaded to its full capacity moves SC
slowly occupies the line, that is, for Sc
long a period that 1t is impossible X
find room for it.
| But it would not be true to say that
the goods are worked at high speed sim
ply for the convenience of the railway
management. On the contrary, the dc
mand for speed in the case Of merchan
disc traffic is fully abreast Of that in th,
case of passengers. Broadly. it may b.
said that the English goods service Il
based on the supposition that, between
important towns at least, whatever Ii
handed to the railway company at Tho
forwarding station over night will be de
livered to the consignee the first thing
next morning. Nova service such q
| this, in the nature Of things, can nevei
/ be a cheap one. Eng gineering Magazine
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