Railway tender

“ It must be for the public to determine whether, for the sake of a small saving in their fares, which after all are moderate as compared with other travelling charges, they desire not only to forego the accommodation and convenience to which they have lately become accustomed, but to arrest the development of the railway system to its utmost extent, and with its development its profits. ”

“ The railway is a public servant. Its rates should be just to and open to all shippers alike. The Government should see to it that within its jurisdiction this is so and should provide a speedy, inexpensive, and effective remedy to that end. At the same time it must not be forgotten that our railways are the arteries through which the commercial life-blood of this Nation flows. Nothing could be more foolish than the enactment of legislation which would unnecessarily interfere with the development and operation of these commercial agencies. ”

“ They must also be permitted to earn enough to assure capital that they can pay interest and principal of the heavy additional loans asked. By the light of this practical, unchangeable fact the railway regulation of the future must be guided. If it is not, then congestion and a general paralysis of trade, costing the country more than double its whole bill for transportation cannot be avoided. ”

“ At first it was assumed that competition in rail transport would be assured, and the dangers in question proportionately reduced, by different carriers using their own locomotives, coaches and carriages on the railway lines, which alone, it was thought, would be owned by the railway companies constructing them. In some of the earlier railway Acts there was even a provision that the railway companies could lease their tolls, as turnpike trustees were doing. ”

“ Unquestionably many of the smaller railways to be amalgamated, though not light railways, need large expenditure for the purpose of duplication of running lines, straightening of curves, stations, stores, and conveniences, and many extensions and cross-lines will also be needed to connect them with the trunk lines, and to open out districts now unprovided with railway facilities. ”

“ Considering, therefore, that not only the ability necessary for the general management of a railway, but the intelligence and vigilance requisite at every station and on every portion of the line are found practically to increase according to the demand, and vice versâ, it is evident that nothing would prove more fatal to the public as well as ruinous to proprietors than to split an efficient remunerating great railway into two or more inefficient and unremunerating small ones. ”

“ In France the railways owned and operated by the State are only a comparatively small section of the whole; but successive Governments have advanced immense sums for railway construction, and the State guarantees the dividends of the companies; while in France as in Germany railway rates are controlled absolutely by the State. ”

“ But the truth is, that the value paid for the land taken by railways is the only item of expense which cannot be justly challenged. The reason is plain. A railway company has in the first instance to prove the preamble of its bill—that is, it must show to the satisfaction of the Legislature that the construction of the work will be attended with public and local advantages. ”

“ Because our railroads are now private concerns, so far at least as legal title is concerned, it is too often assumed in public discussion that they owe their existence solely to private initiative and enterprise. With all credit to their sturdy builders, to whose vision and courage so much is due, the plain historical fact remains that the people of the United States have had a large share in [Pg 36] the great task of creating our present railway net,—not indirectly alone, through settlement of the virgin territory, but immediately and directly through land grants and subventions. ”

“ The peculiar feature of this railway is the territory attached to the concession, namely, a league on each side of the line, comprising a total of about a million of acres, one half of which is the property of the contractors, the other half belonging to the shareholders, who have, besides, the national guarantee of 7 per cent. on the capital of £1,600,000, which the railway is to cost, or about £6,500 per mile. It is, perhaps, one of the easiest railways in the world to make, the chief expense being the rails and rolling stock, few earthworks or ordinary sleepers being required. ”

“ In no single locality are they important enough to exterminate, at the cost of cut rates applied to a large volume of business; and yet in the aggregate they may make quite [Pg 262] a fair livelihood. The only difference between the status of a railway and other lines of business in this regard is that the railway may not be quite so free to deploy its forces. Its territory and tonnage are more definitely circumscribed by physical conditions of location.
A point to be noted in this same connection is the relative stability of the traffic. ”

“ A river crossing brings competition for coal, lime, or cement, but does not affect the rates chargeable on high-class freight which seldom goes by water in any event. A railway specially interested in the development of some particular industry, wherever it crosses our hypothetical line, effectively holds down the rate on the product of that business. ”

“ The company might be merely the owners of a highway and toll takers for the use of it by other people with their own carriages and locomotives. That state of things would be worked out by the railway company possessing the mere line of railway from end to end, and by the persons making use of it, buying or renting contiguous land whereon to keep their rolling stock, and have their offices, availing themselves of the powers of Section 76 of the Act of 1845, and getting on to the railway by means of sidings connected with the railway. ”

“ The Ministry held that very large savings could be effected by standardisation of methods and machinery, and by introducing co-operative working methods. The railways were regarded as neither adequate nor entirely suitable to meet the growing needs of the community, neither for agriculture, industry, nor housing. It was further proposed to modernise canals and waterways, to bring them into line with modern needs. Railway property was stated to amount to £1,200,000,000, and the outgoings and incomings of the railway companies to exceed £500,000,000 a year. ”

“ Railways also, as matter of usage founded on experience, are so far considered by the courts as in the nature of improved highways and as indispensable to the public interest and the successful pursuit, even of local business, that the legislature may authorize the towns and counties of a State through which the railway passes, to borrow money, issue their bonds, subscribe for the stock of the company, or purchase the same to aid the railway company in constructing or completing such a public improvement. ”

“ Such little lines are available in places where the most sanguine promoter would hesitate to suggest an ordinary railway, and may be found to supply what is felt to be the missing link in the economical transport of a long list of materials of everyday use. As they would be almost exclusively intended for merchandise purposes, the statutory requirements would be on the most moderate scale, and as they would be generally constructed at the cost of the parties who had to operate them, the outlay would be restricted to the actual works necessary for convenience and efficiency. ”

“ On 17 Nov. the Times published a table of all the railway companies registered up to the 31st October, numbering 1,428, and involving an outlay of £701,243,208. “Take away,” it said, “£140,000,000 for railways completed, or in progress, exclude all the most extravagant schemes, and divide the remainder by ten, can we add, from our present resources, even a tenth of the vast remainder? Can we add £50,000,000 to the railway speculations we are irretrievably embarked in? We cannot, without the most ruinous, universal and desperate confusion.” ”

“ The railroads, then, have proved themselves competent and trustworthy. But if they are to furnish the necessary additions and provide new terminals, without which the traffic of the country can no more continue to move than a derelict can voyage from port to port, the money will not come, as a magician catches coins, out of the air. ”

“ The originators of the Act did not define what a Light Railway really is, but they evidently had in their minds, inter alia, that railways, unrestricted by Board of Trade regulations as to fencing, sidings, gradients, and permanent stations, should be permitted to run along the high roads, acting as feeders to the existing lines, to the benefit of the small towns, villages, and farms near which they passed. ”

“ Second, the railroads should be permitted to earn and hold a surplus equal to fifty per cent of the amount they pay out in dividends, to be held for emergencies and applied to improved facilities. There are many expenses, and new ones constantly arising, that must not be added to capital charge unless rates are to be made that the public cannot and ought not to be asked to bear. In addition to the heavy demands of the ordinary growth of traffic, there are many extraordinary expenses. Public authorities do not hesitate to order the railroads to provide additional equipment. ”

“ The railway system has not only created a new field for speculation, but likewise a new security for monetary investments. At the close of 1848, upwards of L.43,000,000 was lent upon railways. There is every reason to believe that debenture-holding is much greater now than it was then ”

“ Except in certain instances, where companies have entered into arrangements, securing to the Post-Office the use of their trains on moderate, though still highly remunerative terms, railway conveyance, with all its acknowledged advantages, has proved much more expensive than that which it has superseded. ”

“ Here the loss is L.200 per mile per annum in addition to the loss of the capital expended' for construction. 'The [present] locomotive railway system is of too costly a character to admit of every town having its railway. It is too costly in working as well as in construction. A vast number of places have not traffic sufficient to support railways, though the capital cost of them should be nothing. ”

“ One result of the power thus given to local authorities to bleed the railway companies as an easy and convenient method of providing themselves with funds is that in a large number of parishes throughout the country a railway company pays the bulk of the rates, even though it may not even have a railway station in the place. ”

“ Railways, as developed in England, have thus done more than increase the facilities and decrease the cost of actual transport. They have, in various ways, increased the facilities for, and decreased the cost of the exchange of, commodities, since there is many a trader in the country who conducts his business much more with the help of a railway company's capital than he does with his own. It is not alone that trade and industry have vastly increased in volume as the result of railway operation. ”

“ At first everything was done to facilitate their construction. They were proceeded with in advance of, or concurrently with, immigration and settlement. Many States have made large grants of land to railway companies. In some States a few individuals, from five upwards, may form themselves into a railway company, and under general laws construct railways between any two places, regardless of the wishes of others and the considerations which here form the subject of Parliamentary inquiry. No scale of maximum [Pg 165] rates, as a rule, governs the charges for conveyance ”

“ Whatever course may be actually taken in regard to these particular aspects of the question, the trend of events in the railway world will probably be more and more in the direction of continuing the policy of agreements and amalgamations on lines which, while giving the fullest transport facilities to the public, should check wasteful competition and ensure all practicable economy in the matter of working expenses.
That the trade of the country would suffer, in consequence, is hardly to be anticipated. ”

“ The balance is built and operated on private right of way, and goes around, rather than through, the cities. The tracks are standard gauge and of standard railroad construction, were, at the time they were laid, of higher class than those of the Southern Railway Company in the same territory, were intended for handling substantial interchange freight traffic in connection with steam railroads, have the same ruling grades as the latter in the same territory, and are of 80-pound rail. ”

“ It is clear that our railroads have been capably managed, and that the resources and powers entrusted to them are being used to the highest business advantage. How the money they spend is being employed is shown by the fact that our railroads move 272 ton miles of freight per dollar of net revenue, where the United Kingdom shows only 58, Germany 172 and France 88. For honest and efficient conduct our railways have no equals in the world. ”

“ The growth of the traffic on the principal railways has brought about the necessity of widening or laying down additional lines of rails upon the principal trunk railways, and as this usually involves the purchase of additional land, and more or less interference with public roads and bridges, the operation has to be sanctioned by Parliament very much in the same way as if an absolutely new line of railway were contemplated, although there is not, as a rule, so much serious opposition to be encountered. ”

“ The first transcontinental railways required Government assistance, and could not have been built without it; nowadays, however, corporate companies find no difficulty in providing the capital for any railway that is needed. ”