The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-14
Cost Much More to Travel in
Europe Than America.
Averages 4.46 Cents a Mile
There; 2.S6 Cents Here.
THE COMFORT is LESS,
Would Feel Grained
in Foreign Coaches.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

Travelling first class, 2.145 miles in
Europe. at 30.4 miles per hour with
an average of 1913 pounds of baggage
cost $95.97, or 4.46 cents per mile
Travelling first class. 2.154 miles in
North America, at 1876 miles per hour,
with an average of 1913 pounds of bag
gage, including reserved seat in parlor
car, would cost $61.56, or about 2.S6
cents per mile.
The cost of travelling 2,154 miles
second class in Europe. at 30.4 miles
per hour. without parlor car seat, with
an average of 168 pounds of baggage
is $51.S6. or PAL cents per mile.
The above figures are from the last
Railway Official Guide. Discussing
that subject, this publication says:
THE question as to whether travel
ing by railroad in Europe is or is not
more comfortable than in North Amer
lea, is one the decision of which de-
ponds largely upon the opinion of the
Individual as to what he considers the
most essential elements of comfort An
American using the compartment of
contracted size in the coaches of Eu-
rope, in the absence of the larger
space to which he is accustomed in the
ordinary American passenger coach, or
in the parlor of a sleeping car, is apt
to feel cramped and constrained un-
less he happens to be the single occu-
pant.
THE question as to the cost of trav-
CIAi1s however one OF IdCL, not OF
opinion, and any testimony that tends
to throw light upon the subject ought
to be of interest at the present time,
when so many politicians seeking pop
ular favor desire to force reductions or
resist increases in the rates of fare
charged by our American roads.
1.-THE figures given are taken from
notes made by a not inexperienced
traveller, of amounts actually paid dur
ing a recent tour of several thousand
will n5 H.,
passing through countries having a to-
tai population of about one hundred
and thirty million of people and trav-
cling between sixteen cities with an
aggregate population of about nine
millions
I'm the journeyings in North Amer
lea with which comparison is made
the country traversed has a popula-
ton of about fifty millions and the
routes are between sixteen cities hav-
ing an aggregate population of a lit
tie less than ten millions. These fig
ures are taken in both cases from the
former, not the recent census, as the
complete statements of the latter are
not as yet accessible. The figures for
1910 will doubtless show a large in
crease in both aggregates. Many of
the European cities have made phe-
nonenal growths in the past ten years
while our own cities have not stood
still.
was within a square of about six hun
dred miles by nine hundred miles, and
is therefore about equal to that part
of the United States north of the Ohio
river and between the Atlantic coast
and the Mississippi river.
THE comparison is made between
the fares charged for tickets on each
continent, such as an ordinary pas
senger purchases in travelling from
place to place. In no instance was a
train q There of
course, much cheaper rates of fare in
each country, as for instance the COM
mutation fares in the vicinity of our
large cities where the rate of charge
is sometimes but little over three-quar-
tiers of a cent a mile, and the term
tickets sold in some restricted parts of
Europe by which upon the payment of
a fixed sum, the holder may travel as
often and as far as he wishes for two
weeks or a month. Local conditions
which greatly vary, govern the use and
price Of such forms Of tickets, and no
fair comparison can therefore be made
between them. Higher fares are also
paid in both countries when special
compartments or saloon carriages are
reserved, but these cases are also in
comparable. 1t is believed that the
comparison presented is as fair a one
as can be made.
I'm both instances the cost of trav-
cling in the daytime only is reckoned-
Sleeping car fares in Europe are much
higher than in America.
"A first-class ticket on the continent
of Europe gives to the passenger a seat
in a compartment which accommodates
generally six passengers, three of whom
can ride facing the engine. and three
facing to the rear. Some frst-class
compartments provide places, which
may face in either direction, for three
only; while in others two adjoining