The San Francisco call., 1897-04-22
T. r. Price Arrives Here on
a Tour Which Is Mainly
for Pleasure.
His Story of the Corridor. Car and
the Reduction in Rates to
Passengers.
The Freight Rates Rather Higher Than
Here-Gavernmcnt Ownership
a Benefit

T. R. Price of Cape Town, chief traffic
manager of about 40O0 miles of Govern
ment railroads in South Africa. is at the
Occidental. He is on a tour of the world,
mainly for pleasure, but is incidentally
looking into such improvements and
methods in railroading as may arouse his
interest. He has just come from Aus
tralia, where he has been for some little
time.
Mr.. Price is no ordinary railroad man.
His position is very important one. He
was for seventeen years connected with
the Great Western Railroad one of the
leading lines OF England, prior to going to
south Africa, where he has been for eigh-
teen years.
The Cape Railway, reaching from Cape
Town to Johannesburg and beyond. has
with its branches length OF $500 miles
The Portuguese Railway, running from
Delagoa Bay to the frontier. is but sixty
miles long. The Netherlands South At
rica Railway, in the Transvaal, has 400
miles of line. The Natal Government
Railway, in Natal, has 400 miles. Be-
sides these there is the British South AZ
rican Company's railway from Fry burg TO
Buluwayo, through Matabeleland. About
200 miles of this road is now built, and
work is progressing in extending it, at the
rate of about mile and half a day. 1t
will be about 600 miles long when COM
pleted. Besides these there are few
short railways, approximating in ali
about 200 miles. Besides these there is a
road through the Orange Free State $50
miles long.
These details were given by Mr.. Price
and then he added:
THE bonded debt of the Cape road is
about f14, ,0O0,0 900. Tie road cost about
f7OO0 or fS000 mile. Traffic is pretty
heavy, and this year we will pay about 9
per cent interest on the bonded debt. The
gauge of the South African roads, almost
forgot to say, is feet 6 inches. They
were made this gauge at first and after
ward the gauge was continued to insure
unity in order that the cars might con-
form. The distance from the Cape to
Buawayo is 1900 miles.
"Our cars are somewhat different from
either the English or American cars.
They are sort of com bination of the Pull
man and English. Each of the cars has
four first-class compartments and six
second-class, besides room for baggage
They are called corridor-cars. Each has
long hallway or corridor on one side run
nllg the whole length, so that passengers
may go from one car to another through
the train. As whole the people there
like them better than either the English
or American cars.
'"Our rates per mile for fare are: Third
class penny; second class, pennies;
first class, 3 pennies; return tickets, one
and half fares. These return tickets for
very short distances are good for four
days, for sixty miles they are good for
week, 100 miles for two weeks, for a
longer distance they are good for a month
and for some three months.
1--WE are now going to make substantial
reductions for first and second class fares.
1t has long been our custom to make SUBJ
stantial reductions for school holidays
and for excursions on holidays, like Whit
suntide, Christmas and so on. For these
We charge single fares for double Jour-
neys, and for families for distances over
$50 miles we charge ee-fourths OF a
fare. Our roads are the first of which l
have ever heard 10 make reductions for
families.
Freight charges are somewhat higher
there than here.
I'm regard TO Government ownership.
my i'm preston is that it is to the advan-
tage of the people. / was for eighteen
years with one OF the leading private
roads OF England, the Great Western"
Mr.. Price seems a very careful and
thoroughly well-informed railroad man,