The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-11-14
A UTAH ROAD.
SPLENDID SHOWING MADE BY THE
RIO GRANDE WESTERN.
A Big Increase in Business, Which
Runs the Surplus Up TO Nearly
Sixty-Five Thousand Dollars
Some Details.

The way in which the Rio Grande
Western railway has set about doing
business for the present fiscal year is
something for wonderment The first
Quarter has just ended, and the aston
ishing increase of $4,000. or 20 per
cent. in the gross earnings, is an
nOunced, and a better still increase of
$50, 900, or AZ per cent. in the net. The
report of this company for the last
fiscal year, which ended with June, is
Just out, and it shows that with all
the vicissitudes of the year the road
kept ahead of the previous year. The
gross earnings were $2,1S9,691, net
earnings from traffic $743, 447. and the
net earnings, after deducting $4S,655
for interest upon leased line securities,
1872, 102 Against this stands $747 400. 81
for taxes, insurance rentals and inter-
est, with other items amounting to
81, 461.22 These two items make $751;
Sal, which, when deducted from the
net earnings, leaves surplus of $40
261. Added to this is $24, 100 surplus
of year ago. less S473 in small items,
and the surplus is run up to $63, 94S
The net earnings from traffic show an
increase of $19,142, or 2.64 per cent,
and the surplus income for the year
an increase of $30,911, or $50 per cent.
says the Denver Republican AS a
reminder OF the a. r. u strike, the
report says that episode cost the com
pany $4,000 by impaired gross earn
ings- This amount properly belongs
to the surplus column, and the de
duction is that had it not been for
the strike the Rio Grande Western
would have had the magnificent sur
plus of 100000 to its credit in the
present report of the general manager.
Freight and Passenger.
During the year the road hauled 679-
$50 tons of paying freight. II 600 more
than ever before, and $4,000 or 6 per
cent more than the year before. This
increased tonnage SWelled the treasury
by $l51,422, or 1896 per cent. The aver
age earnings per ton were slightly
greater than last year. being S2.3S as
against $3.50, but the average earnings
per ton per mile were less. being only
1883 cents, against LAOS cents.
The total number of passengers car
rled was 219.S13 an increase of 2.94 pe,
cent, and in making this statement the
report couples a peculiar one. 1t saws
that the through passengers decreased
In number As per cent, while local pas
SenSerS increased in numbers % Der
cent, the average distance Travelled he
>ng 80 miles, against 142 miles travelled
last year. Local passengers contributed
% per cent. of the total earnings of the
passenger department of the line.
The principal traffic of the year was
coal, which has always been the case
with the road. Tonnage hauled of this
class of freight was 297, 900. A per cent
of the total tonnage of the wear.
against II per cent. for the preceding.
year. Ores fell off 22,970 tons, q per
cent. Fruit tonnage was 67.921. earning
Sl67, Isl, against 49,202 tons of the wear
before. which earned S13O,264. The gain
in fruit tonnage on the line in five
years is shown in the report to be 20
fold, while the gain in revenue from,
the same source during the same ne
Rod is set at is fold
From grain the revenue increased 80
per cent while live stock and wool
were features of the year.
Not u Passenger Injured.
During the whole of the year not a
passenger was either killed or injured
on the line, and washouts only cost
the company $500.
4The entire condition Of the line"
President Palmer says in the report,
physical and financial. is now quite
healthy, and the outlook in every way
promising. The earnings of the first
three months of the new fiscal year
or 20 per cent, and in the net $4,000, or
AZ per cent, over the first quarter of the
previous year"