The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-09

the following table:
Local au- Private
| thorities companies
| Undertakings
owned. 175 1877
| Total capital
outlay. -. f37,156,46o f21,021,372
Lines open
miles. -. 1,4s1A 74s%
Cost per mile f24,916 f2S,072
| Undertakings
worked 1913 70.
Capital outlay f31,147,306 f26,3O5, 02S
Track operated,
miles, 1,273% 93S
Gross receipts f6,853,4S6 f3,7S9,692
penses. f4,s2s,7s4 f2,512.o2s
| Ratio of in
come, 63.0S 66.2S
Net revenue f2,52s,752 f1,277,s $50
Equivalent re-
turn on cap
ital per cent 8 Az
| Car distance
run 154,ss5.7S1 ss.1ss,sSs
/ Net revenue
! per car mile
| pence, s.s1 S.4s
Net revenue
per track
mile, f1,66G f1,365
I Passengers
carried, 1,529,5S6,43s 7o6,416.33s
Average fare
4 per passen-
| ger, pence, LOB LII
1t will be Immediately noticed that
there are more public than privately
owned street railway systems in Great
Britain. In some cases the munich
palities lease their tracks to privately
owned companies, which accounts for
| the fact that while the municipalities
own ITS undertakings, they operate
! only 1872 of them, principally because
the franchises of the private COM
panies are still running. And, TOO
it will be noted that in the showing
of financial conditions, the figures are
in favor of the municipally-own en-
terprises. Also the municipalities
make more money on their invest
ments and carry passengers at a less
| average rate of fare. 1t would have
been well if still mother figure had
been added to the above table-the
average distance each passenger was
carried. If it had been given, it
would have shown that the munich
pally-owned lines also carried their
did the privately-owned ones.
With this showing before him, an
unprecedented person can come to only
one conclusion He cannot escape
of Great Britain have made a great
success of their street car systems.
But the British government furnish
es further evidence of this in the
remarks appended to the above table.
Comparing with each other publicly
and privately-owned street car lines,
| the government official comes 70
| these conclusions:
mo. branch of municipal enter
1 prise has made such rapid pro-
/ gress during recent years as that
I relating to tramways. Almost
| without exception every large
town has completely municipaliz-
| ed tramways, or Is about to do so.
| The expiry Of tramway companies
leases comedies with the introduce
ton of new methods of traction,
and before many years the facili-
ties for rapid transit in our great
centers of population will be COM
| pletely, revolutionized. Municipal
corporations, in some cases, anx-
ious to get tramways completely
/ under their control at the earliest
possible moment, do not wait for
leases to expire, but buy out the
| companies on terms which are p Of
! liable to the community. A large
| number of towns have constructed
all or part of their tramways. 1T
TRAMWAY SERVICE CAN BE
OF THE FULLEST BENEFIT TO
THE PEOPLE UNLESS IT is
OPERATED AS WE'LL AS OWN
ED BY THE MUNICIPALITY.
Every town is seeking to intro
| duce electric or other mechanical
traction, and as in the majority of
cases the corporations own the
electric lighting supply, the intro
duction of electric traction will
| prove of great advantage, SINCE
THE CoMBINATIoN OF THE
BOUND TO RESULT IN THE
HIGHEST STANDARD OF ECO
NOMICAL WORKING.
The British people are in no es.
sential different from the American
people. They are neither wiser, mol
more enterprising, nor better bust
ness men, nor imbued with higher
ideals. They have been driven tc
municipal trading purely from eco
nomic motives. They were giver
poor service at exorbitant rates by
the privately gas, water ani
tramway corporations, and they re-
belled, after trying for years to regu
; late these private owners of public
utilities. And as they succeeded il
their other enterprises, it was natur
al that the street car monopoly should
also be taken over.
Neither has the average British of
fee holder any high ideal as to tn,
functions of the municipality. H,
} considers one utility after another
! from business standpoint-th,
standpoint of pounds and pence--ant
; he cares not whittier it leads to Sc
cialism or the opposite. What h
! wants is the very best service at tn
very lowest rate, and so the almo<,
. universal success of municipal under
taking has made him an advocate o
, any and everything which will hav,
, a tendency to reduce either genera
taxation, as shown by the rates, o.
) special taxation, as shown by the
profits Of private companies doing thu