Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-01-01
RAILROAD BUSINESS.
Some Comparisons Between English
and American Lines.

and American Lines.
An expert statistician has made
up the following statement showing
comparisons of the railroad business
of the two English-speaking ma
tions, which may be of interest.
The statement shows the railway
mileage of the roads of the two
countries, the equipments of their
lines and many other points which
will bear careful study. The total
length of railroads in Great Britain
Iis Fl PA miles. In the United
States, it is, or was at the last COM
putation, 179, S21 miles. There is
more than six times as much rail-
road mileage, therefore, in this
country as there is in Great Britain,
and the population of the United
States, it ought perhaps to be added,
is more than double the population
of Great Britain. Americans, it is
we'll known, are greater travellers
than English people, and have
larger means for such purposes.
Yet, notwithstanding these advan-
tages, it is fact that the railroads
of Great Britain, with smaller mile
age and smaller territory to draw
from, do considerably more passen-
ger business than the railroads of
the United States combined.
Comparing the figures at hand
from Great Britain with those last
at hand from the railroads of this
country, it is seen in the first place
that while in year the number of
passengers carried in the United
States is 543, 100000 the number
carried in Great Britain for the
same period was 1929, 600, 600. 1t is
true that there has been, during the
last two years q decline of passen-
ger traffic on the railroads of the
United States, and particularly so
since the receipts of American rail-
roads were ephemerally and abnor-
mally swollen by the business of the
worlds fair. But at the highest
point the number OF passengers car
ried on American railroads was 600.-
900, 600, or less than two thirds Of
the number of passengers carried ON
British railroads. There are twice
as many locomotives in use on Amer
lean railroads as there are on Brit
ish railroads, but this disparity in
the United States is explained by
the fact that American locomotives
draw chiefly freight trains, or, as
they are called in England, goods"
trains. The freight or goods"
business of American railroads is
twice as good as the business of
British railroads in the same line
In the last year computed the total
number OF tons Of freight moved on
American railroads was 743, 900, 900.
The year previous it was 200, AT
900. The average movement of
goods" or freight in Great Britain
in a year is 22O, 600, 600, or less than
one third
DAlbAol AdilAOdAoi co lhlCi dAG
much more substant TALLY construct
ed than are American railroads.
The geographical obstacles are less,
capital is more readily obtained,
labor is cheaper, and, moreover,
British railroads connect well-estab-
lished districts or cities instead of !
being constructed on the tentative
American plan under which dis
tricts grow up about railroad.
Many new lines, extensions, spurs
and connections of American roads |
are put up with no reasonable ex-
pectation Of immediate return, and
these, while adding to the railroad
mileage of the country, increase but
its earning capacity. Never
theless the business done by Amer
lean railroads is far in excess of that
done by British railroads, though in
respect to the number of passeh-
gers carried the railroads OF the
United States are very far behind.
st. Louis Globe Democrat
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The Good kha Enar,s - a.. n.