A curious return has just been issued, showing the number of railway
passengers who have travelled on all the railways in the United Kingdom
during the half-year ending 30th June last, by which it will be seen
that railway shareholders continue to be mainly indebted for their
dividends to third-class traffic. During the above period the number
of passengers who travelled were as follows, omitting fractions: First
class, sixteen million one hundred thousand; second class, twenty-five
million eight hundred thousand; third class, two hundred and forty-one
million seven hundred thousand—the number of third-class passengers
being more than five hundred per cent. in excess of first and second
class combined; and the relative amount of receipts is in equal
proportion. This remarkable difference applies to all the lines in
common, the third-class passengers being in excess all throughout the
kingdom. But the North London line is especially striking in regard
to receipts, inasmuch as the receipts from the third-class passengers
amounted to about eight hundred per cent. more than from the first
and second combined! Within the same period, the Metropolitan and
District Railways, and the North London Railway, carried over fifty
million passengers; to which enormous return must be added, as showing
the prodigious traffic within the area of the metropolis, that of
the Great Eastern; London, Chatham, and Dover; London and Brighton;
South-western; and South-eastern—a large portion of whose traffic is
purely metropolitan.