C Railway Economics

Passenger Traffic.

Railway traffic may be divided into two main divisions: (I) that carried by passenger train, and (2) that carried by freight train. Passenger trains in Great Britain for many years carried three classes of passengers (see Section B: Rolling Stock), but the and or intermediate class has gradually disappeared until it survives only on certain London suburban and Continental train services. The use of "Pullman" cars which cater for the 1st and 3rd class passenger upon payment of an extra charge has in practice added a "de luxe" class, but these cars are only used upon certain services of the L.M.S., L.N.E. and Southern railways. On the electric tube railways in London there is one class only, in order to assist rapid loading and unload ing of passengers at the stations, where the stopping time is very short. An express train carries little besides the passengers, their luggage, post office mails and a certain amount of parcels traffic, but slower trains carry much milk traffic and sometimes horse boxes and wagons containing livestock, so that the revenue de rived from a passenger train service may be varied. Special charges are made for luggage in excess of so many lb. weight per passenger, while workmen's tickets are issued for trains arriv ing at cities in the early morning, and special low rates charged for season tickets, which permit the holder an unlimited number of journeys within the period covered by the ticket.

Passengers are charged mileage rates of 12d. for 3rd class, and half as much again for 1st class, but over 5o% of passengers are carried at lower rates, either by means of season tickets, tourist, week-end, or other special tickets. Railways in nearly all countries where adequate road systems exist have lost traffic to road motor services to a serious extent, and in many cases are not carrying so many passengers as they did io years pre viously. In the South Western States of America, such as Texas, passenger traffic fell away by 6o% in 8 years owing to the com petition of the motor car, but that is a somewhat extreme case. Nevertheless railways throughout Europe and North America have been forced to exercise the maximum of effort to reduce their branch line costs, where much of the loss has taken place, and at the same time to make every effort to induce new passen ger traffic. British railways have extended the use of road motor feeder services and have increased their train mileage, and while recent legislation has done much to stabilize the position, the tendency appears to be towards a decrease in short distance pas sengers and an increase in the number of passengers travelling longer distances. To provide an economical service on branch lines, certain railways employ rail motor cars, the engine form ing part of the passenger car. These "rail motor cars" are light in weight, cheap to operate, and can carry a trailer when fitted with a high powered engine, which may be of steam, electric or petrol electric design. They can be operated from either end.

Freight Traffic.

Freight trains carry every kind of com modity, from perishable, such as fruit and meat, to manufactured products, such as machinery, etc., as well as bulk consignments of raw materials, as coal, iron ore, road stone, manure, grain and salt. Wherever possible train loads are made at the originating point, as in the case of coal from a mine, but the general tendency is for trade to become more retail as the transport service im proves. Reliability of service enables reserve stocks to be cut

down to a minimum, thus saving the interest charges on that stock, but entailing greater expense in handling as the average individual consignment grows smaller. The British railways carry over 350,000,000 tons of freight in a year of trade prosperity, the average revenue per ton for all classes of traffic amounting to about 7s., the revenue from freight traffic per route mile being about is,000, and 15s. per train mile.

Freight traffic is divided into three main classes in the British official statistics, namely, general merchandise ; coal, coke and patent fuel; and other minerals, all measured in tons, while live stock is measured by the number of animals. Great Britain is almost the only country which separates coal traffic from other freight traffic, due doubtless to the important percentage which that commodity forms of the total traffic carried. Since the aver age length of haul for all classes of freight traffic in Great Britain is only about 55m., road motor services are able to compete suc cessfully for the more valuable types of traffic. This may result in a dangerous condition of affairs, because to make good this loss of revenue, charges may have to be raised upon those heavy articles, such as heavy machinery, coal and raw materials, which are very unsuited for haulage by road. The freight rates or charges made for carrying consignments are closely regulated by the specially appointed Railway Rates Tribunal in Great Britain, where as in every other country the scale of charges is quoted on a mileage basis. For this purpose commodities are placed in classes according to intrinsic value, difficulty of handling, fragile nature or relation of volume to weight entailed. From the com mencement of railway history it has been recognized that the greater the value of a commodity, the more it could afford to pay for haulage ; thus silk is placed in a class where the goods have to pay more per mile than the scale in which cotton is found. Bulky and heavy articles, like bricks and coal, cannot afford to pay such high charges per mile as valuable metallic ores. In short, every article carried by a railway is to be found in the freight classification, the number of classes varying with each country, some only using 4 or 5 classes, others over a score. To obtain, therefore, the proper charge for haulage by rail, reference must first be made to the classification book, and then to the mileage charge made for that class of traffic. Freight rates are also said to "taper," that is the charge per mile grows less as the distance increases; this enables a commodity produced under the disad vantage of greater distance from the consuming centre to compete with commodities produced nearer at hand. Specially low rates, known as "exceptional rates" in Great Britain, are quoted by rail ways to allow producers served by their lines to compete with producers in other areas. Such special rates are found in almost every country, and frequently result in strong international com petition, as in the case of coal produced in Great Britain, Ger many, Poland and France.