The speed of passenger trains is being steadily increased, and recent years have shown some re markable records of train speeds both in America and abroad. A more important development than these occasional record runs, however, has been the increase in the average speed of trains. Many railways to-day maintain a schedule speed of 50 miles per hour in their express train ser vice, and in some instances regular trains aver age 60 miles per hour. Where an average speed of 60 miles an hour is demanded by the time-table, the speed during a part of the run often reaches 75 and even 85 miles per hour. Much higher speeds than this have been exceptionally attained for short distances. As the result of these de velopments the schedule time between important cities has been greatly reduced. In the United States between four and five thousand pas sengers are killed and injured each year by rail way accidents. These figures seem large until the enormous number of passengers carried safe ly to one injured is calculated. According to the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 2,316,643 passengers were carried safely in 1900 to one passenger killed, and 139,740 passengers were carried safely to one injured. In England in 1900 the proportion was one passenger England in 8,461,309, and one injured in 470.848. On the Continent of Europe in many cases an even bet ter record is maintained.
The railways of Europe are largely under Gov ernment control, growing out of the policy of subsidizing them, or in some cases of building the lines outright, or of guaranteeing a mo nopoly of traffic by the State. In France most of the railways are either owned entirely or to a very large extent by the Government, and are held by the companies operating them on leases. In this way almost all the railways in the coun try will ultimately revert to the possession of the Government. 'Railway service in England is in some respects different from that of any other country, and its evolution from stage-coach travel is still suggested by its nomenclature. The cars are called carriages, the engineers drivers. and the conductors guards. The absence of grade crossings and sharp curves and the substantial character of the construction work make the English roadbeds superior to most others. Safety in travel is greatly promoted by these conditions, but in other respects the passenger service is. from an American standpoint, much inferior to that in this country, although vast improve ments have taken place both in England and on the Continent within recent years.
Freight service constitutes the greater part of the business of most railways, and is the most important source of their income. Of the entire revenue of the railways, about 70 per cent. is derived from freight traffic, 25 per cent. from
passenger service, and 5 per cent. from mail and other minor services. The movement of freight by the early railways was very slow and much more expensive than it is now, largely owing to the transfers made between the cars of different companies, each of which used its own rolling stock exclusively. With the increase of freight traffic the custom has grown to allow freight cars to run from the point of shipment over any number of railways to their destination without transfer, and the greater part of the freight business in the United States is now done in this way. The cars of each company become considerably scattered over the lines of other companies, and every road does more or less business with other companies' cars, for which a mileage is paid to the owners of the cars. The through freight service of the country is very much improved by avoiding transfers, but at the same time keeping account of the where abouts of its ears and reducing its mileage bal ance by as little use as possible of foreign cars are often troublesome problems for a railway. The car accountant's department keeps records of the movement of cars, which are made up from the re ports of the train conductors and from agents placed at each railway junction. These records are quite complete, and are of additional use in checking the reports of foreign roads and adjust ing the mileage charges. Cars are supposed to be promptly returned to their home roads with loads in that direction only, but it happens fre quently that when short of cars freight agents will use any car at hand, without regard to its home direction. From this practice it sometimes results that a car will not reach home for months or even over a year from the time it left its own road. At the receiving station freight is loaded into the cars, as far as possible allowing to certain ears goods marked to the same destina tion. The number and destination of each ear is given to the dispatcher, who makes up the trains from these memoranda. The conductor takes the memoranda of each car, called running slips, and these slips are transferred from road to road with the car until it reaches its destina tion. At each railway junction a record of the ears in every train is made. For through freight several fast freight lines have been organized under a separate management to operate between certain points over several roads. Some of these are simply formed by the eo;iperation of several roads, each of which assigns a certain number of cars to the line. which is placed in control of a general manager. fast freight lines are independent of the railways. which simply charge mileage for the cars carried over their lines.