Whatever the difficulties which have attended the development of British
railways, the lines themselves have been spread throughout the three
kingdoms to such an extent that there are now very few districts not within
easy reach of a railway; while though the different lines are still owned
by, altogether, a considerable number of companies, the physical
connections between them and the arrangements of the leading companies, not
only for through bookings but for through trains, supplemented by the
operations of the Railway Clearing House, have brought about as close an
approach to a really national network of railways, connecting all the
different sections of the country one with another, as could well be
expected in view of the lack of co-ordination when the lines were first
called into being.
At the end of 1910, according to the Railway Returns issued by the Board of
Trade, the "length of line" of the railways in the United Kingdom was
23,387 miles. By itself, however, this figure does not give an adequate
idea of the extent of the railway system. This is better realised by taking
the figures for track mileage and sidings. A far greater proportion of the
railways in England and Wales than in any other country consists of double,
treble or other multiple track, so that for one mile in length of line
there may be two, three or more miles of separate pairs of rails,
increasing the transport facilities in proportion. The percentage of single
track to total length of line in various countries is shown by the
following figures:--
PER CENTAGE OF
COUNTRY. SINGLE TRACK.
England and Wales 33.0
Scotland 59.0
Ireland 80.2
United Kingdom 44.2
Prussian State railways 57.3
Germany (the entire system) 61.7
France (main line system) 57.0
{360}"Track mileage" in the United Kingdom is shown in the Board of Trade
Returns for 1910 as under:--
TRACK. MILES.
First 23,389
Second 13,189
Third 1,517
Fourth 1,192
Fifth 236
Sixth 143
Seventh 70
Eighth 44
Ninth 24
Tenth 14
Eleventh 10
Twelfth 7
Thirteenth 5
Fourteenth 4
Fifteenth 3
Sixteenth--nineteenth 1 each
Corresponding figures for the United States of America, taken from an
abstract issued in July, 1911, by the Interstate Commerce Commission, give
the following classification of track mileage, excluding yard track and
sidings:--
TRACK. MILES.
First 240,831
Second 21,659
Third 2,206
Fourth 1,489
It will be seen from the figures relating to track mileage in the United
Kingdom that there is at least one mile of railway in the United Kingdom
which really consists of nineteen pairs of rails alongside one another,
though counting, in length of line, as only a single mile. In the United
States there seems to be no suggestion of any railroad having more than
four tracks.
The length of track in the United Kingdom is 39,851 miles. To this must be
added a further 14,460 miles, the length of sidings reduced to single
track, giving a total, including sidings, of 54,311 miles.
Rolling stock was owned in 1910 by the different railway companies
throughout the United Kingdom as follows: Locomotives, 22,840; carriages
used for conveyance of passengers only, but including rail motor carriages,
52,725; other vehicles attached to passenger trains, 20,090; waggons of all
kinds used for the conveyance of live stock, minerals or general
merchandise, 745,369; any other carriages or waggons used on the railway,
21,360; total number of vehicles, excluding locomotives, 839,544. These
figures are exclusive of about 600,000 waggons owned by private
traders.[54]
{361}The total weight of goods and minerals conveyed in 1910 was
514,428,806 tons, and the total number of passengers carried (exclusive of
752,663 season-ticket holders) was 1,306,728,583. The miles travelled
were--by passenger trains, 266,851,217; by goods trains, 154,555,559; by
mixed trains, 1,814,762, giving a total of 423,221,538 miles. It is
difficult to grasp the real significance of these figures; but, taking the
train mileage alone the total distance run by trains in the United Kingdom
in 1910 was equal to nearly 17,000 journeys round the world, and to four
and a half journeys to the sun.
The total amount of railway capital returned as paid-up at the end of 1910
was £1,318,500,000, of which about £197,000,000, or approximately fifteen
per cent, was due to nominal additions on the consolidation, conversion and
division of stocks, showing a net investment of £1,120,500,000. The gross
receipts of the companies during 1909 were as follows:--
PROPORTION TO
SOURCE. £ TOTAL RECEIPTS.
Passenger traffic 52,758,489 42.57
Goods 61,478,643 49.61
Miscellaneous[55] 9,688,433 7.82
---------- -----
Totals 123,925,565 100.00
The working expenditure in the same period amounted to £76,569,676, a
proportion to total receipts of 62 per cent. The net receipts, therefore,
were £47,355,889, the proportion of which to paid-up capital was 3.59 per
cent.
The average rates of dividend or interest alike on ordinary {362}and on all
classes of capital paid in the years from 1900 to 1909, were as follows:--
YEAR. ORDINARY. ALL CLASSES.
1900 3.34 3.45
1901 3.05 3.33
1902 3.32 3.45
1903 3.30 3.44
1904 3.26 3.42
1905 3.29 3.43
1906 3.35 3.46
1907 3.31 3.45
1908 2.99 3.32
1909 3.15 3.39
1910 3.48 3.53
It is pointed out in the Returns, however, that on account of the nominal
additions made to the capital of the companies the rates of dividend or
interest given in the tables are lower than they would otherwise be. Thus
the average rates of dividend or interest for the United Kingdom in 1910
calculated on capital exclusive of nominal additions would show: Ordinary,
4.28 per cent (instead of 3.48 as above), and "all classes" 4.15 (instead
of 3.53) per cent.
These averages, nevertheless, allow for a large amount of capital on which
the dividend or interest paid is either _nil_ or substantially below the
averages stated.