'On the day that our preamble was proved, we had all a famous dinner
at three guineas a head--never saw such a splendid set-out in my life!
each of us had a printed bill of fare laid beside his plate; and I
brought it home as quite a curiosity in the way of eating!' Such was
the account lately given us by a railway projector of that memorable
year of frenzy, 1845. A party of committee-men, agents, engineers, and
solicitors, had, in their exuberance of cash, dined at a cost of some
sixty guineas--a trifle added to the general bill of charges, and of
course not worth thinking of by the shareholders.
These days of dining at three guineas a head for the good of railway
undertakings are pretty well gone; and agents and counsel may well
sigh over the recollection of doings probably never to return.
'The truth is, we were all mad in those times,' added the individual
who owned so candidly to the three-guinea dinner. And this is the only
feasible way of accounting for the wild speculations of seven years
ago. There was a universal craze. All hastened to be rich on the
convenient principle of overreaching their neighbours. There was
robbery throughout. Engineers, landholders, law-agents, and jobbers,
pocketed their respective booties, and it is needless to say who were
left to suffer.
Looking at the catastrophe, the subject of railway mismanagement is
somewhat too serious for a joke, and we have only drawn attention for
an instant to the errors of the past in order to draw a warning for
the future. It must ever be lamented that the introduction of so
stupendous and useful a thing as locomotion by rail, should have
become the occasion of such widespread cupidity and folly; for
scarcely ever had science offered a more gracious boon to mankind. It
is charitable to think that the foundation of the great error that was
committed, lay in a miscalculation as to the relation between
expenditure and returns. We can suppose that there was a certain faith
in the potency of money. To spend so much, was to bring back so much;
and it became an agreeable delusion, that the more was spent, the
greater was to be the revenue. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have
occurred to any one of the parties concerned, that all depends on how
money is spent. There are tradesmen, we imagine, who know to their
cost, that it is quite within the bounds of possibility to have the
whole of their profits swept away by rent and taxes. Curious, that
this plain and unpleasant and very possible result did not dawn on the
minds of the great railway interests. And yet, how grave and
calculating the mighty dons of the new system of locomotion--men who
passed themselves off as up to anything!
Wonderfully acute secretaries; highly-polished chairmen; directors
disdainful of ordinary ways of transacting business. A mystery made of
the most common-place affairs! We may be thankful that the world has
at last seen through these pretenders to superhuman sagacity. With but
remarkably few exceptions, the great railway men of the time have
committed the grossest blunders; and the stupidest blunder of all, has
been the confounding of proper and improper expenditure; just as if a
shopkeeper were to fall into the unhappy error of imagining that his
returns were to be in the ratio, not of the business he was to do, but
of his private and unauthorised expenses.
The instructive fact gathered from railway experience is, that there
is an expenditure which _pays_, and an expenditure that is totally
wasteful. Directors have made the discovery, that costly litigation,
costly and fine stations, fine porticos and pillars, fine bridges, and
finery in various other things, contribute really nothing to returns,
but, on the contrary, hang a dead weight on the concern. No doubt,
fine architecture is a good and proper thing in itself; but a railway
company is not instituted for the purpose of embellishing towns with
classic buildings. Its function is to carry people from one place to
another on reasonable terms, with a due regard to the welfare of those
who undertake the transaction. How carriages may be run well and
cheaply, yet profitably, is the sole question for determination; and
everything else is either subordinate or positively useless. A
suitable degree of knowledge on these points would, we think, tend
materially to restore confidence in railway property. Could there be
anything more cheering than the well-ascertained fact, that _no
railway has ever failed for want of traffic_? In every instance, the
traffic would have yielded an ample remuneration to the shareholders,
had there been no extravagant expenditure. Had the outlays been
confined to paying for the land required, the making of the line, the
laying down of rails, the buying locomotives and carriages, and
working the same, all would have gone on splendidly; and eight, ten,
twenty, and even a higher per cent., would in many instances have been
realised. At the present moment, the lines that are paying best are
not those on which there is the greatest amount of traffic, but those
on which there was the most prudent expenditure. In order to judge
whether any proposed railway will pay, it is only necessary to inquire
at what cost per mile, all expenses included, it is to be produced. If
the charge be anything under L.5000 per mile, there is a certainty of
its doing well, even if the line be carried through a poorly-populated
district; and up to L.20,000 per mile is allowable in great
trunk-thoroughfares; but when the outlay reaches L.50,000 or L.100,000
per mile, as it has done in some instances, scarcely any amount of
traffic will be remunerative. In a variety of cases, the expenditure
per mile has been so enormous, that remunerative traffic becomes a
physical impossibility. In plain terms, if the whole of these lines,
from end to end, were covered with loaded carriages from morning to
night, and night to morning, without intermission of a single moment,
they would still be carried on at a loss! Gold may be bought too
dearly, and so may railways.
As there seems to be an appearance of a revival in railway
undertakings, it will be of the greatest importance to keep these
principles in view; and we are glad to observe that, taking lessons
from the past, the promoters of railway schemes are confining their
attention mainly to plans of a simple and economical class. Hitherto,
railways have, for the most part, been adapted to leading
thoroughfares, by which certain districts have been overcrowded with
lines, leaving others destitute. Branch single lines of rail appear,
therefore, to be particularly desirable for these forgotten
localities. These branch-lines may prove exceedingly serviceable, not
only as regards the ordinary demands of trade and agriculture, but
those of social convenience. Among the prominent needs of our time, is
ready access for the toiling multitudes to places rendered interesting
by physical beauty and romantic association--fit objects for holiday
excursions. The _excursion train_, suddenly discharging its hundreds
of strangers at some antique town or castle, or in the neighbourhood
of some lovely natural scenery, is one of the wonders of the day--and
one, we think, of truly good omen, considering the importance that
seems to be connected with the innocent amusements of the people. We
rejoice in every movement which tends to increase the number of places
to which these holiday-parties may resort, as we thoroughly believe,
that the more of them we have, our people will be the more virtuous,
refined, and happy.
We lately had much pleasure in examining and learning some particulars
of a short branch-railway which has added the ancient university city
of St Andrews, with its many curious objects, to the number of those
places which may become the termini of excursion trains. We find from
Lord Jeffrey's Life, that in this town, fifty years ago, only one
newspaper was received; a number (if it can be called a number) which
we are assured, on the best authority, is now increased to _fifteen
hundred per week_! Parallel with this fact, is that of its having, ten
years ago, a single coach _per diem_ to Edinburgh, carrying six or
seven persons, while now it has three trains each day, transporting
their scores, not merely to the capital, but to Perth and Dundee
besides. Conceiving that there is a value in such circumstances on
account of the light which they throw on the progress of the country,
we shall enter into a few particulars.
The St Andrews Railway is a branch of the Edinburgh, Perth, and
Dundee, and extends somewhat less than five miles. Formed with a
single line only, over ground presenting scarcely any engineering
difficulties, and with favour rather than opposition from the
proprietors of the land, it has cost only L.25,000, or about L.5000
per mile. The main line agrees to work it, and before receiving
payment, to allow the shareholders 4-1/2 per cent. for their money;
all further profits to be divided between the two companies, after
paying working expenses. It was opened on the 1st July last, and
hitherto the appearances of success have been most remarkable. On an
assumption that the traffic inwards was equal to that outwards, the
receipts for passengers during each of the first six weeks averaged
L.52, 14s. This was exclusive of excursion trains, of which one
carried 500 persons, another between 500 and 600, a third 1500; and so
on. It was also exclusive of goods and mineral traffic, which are
expected to give at least L.1000 per annum. The result is, that this
railway appears likely to draw not much under L.4000 a year--a sum
sufficient, after expenses are paid, to yield what would at almost any
time be a high rate of percentage to the shareholders, while, in the
present state of the money-market, it will be an unusually ample
remuneration.
We have instanced this economically-constructed line, because we have
seen it in operation, and can place reliance on the facts connected
with its financial affairs. Other lines, however, more or less
advanced, seem to have prospects equally hopeful. A similar branch is
about to be made from the same main line to the town of Leven. One is
projected to branch from the Eskbank station of the North British line
to Peebles--a pretty town on the Tweed, which, up till the present
time, has been secluded from general intercourse, and will now, for
the first time, have its beautiful environs laid open to public
observation. The entire cost of this line, rather more than 18 miles
in length, is to be only L.70,000, or about L.3600 per mile. Another
branch from the same line is projected to go to Lauder. One, of the
same cheap class, is to connect Aberdeen with Banchory on the Dee.
Another will be constructed between Blairgowrie and a point on the
Scottish Midland. For such adventures, St Andrews is a model.[1]
The time is probably not far distant when single branch-lines will
radiate over the country, developing local resources, as well as
uniting the whole people in friendly and profitable intercourse. To be
done rightly, however, rational foresight and the plain principles of
commerce must inspire the projectors. It will be necessary to avoid
all parliamentary contests; to do nothing without a general movement
of the district in favour of the line, so that no parties may be
sacrificed for the benefit of others; to hold rigorously to an
economical principle of construction; to launch out into no
extravagant plans in connection with the main object contemplated.
These being attended to, we can imagine that, in a few years hence,
there will be a set of modest little railways which will be the envy
of all the great lines, simply because they enjoy the distinction
denied to their grander brethren, of _paying_, and which will not only
serve important purposes in the industrial economy of the country, but
vastly promote the moral wellbeing of the community, in furnishing a
means of harmless amusement to those classes whose lot it is to spend
most of their days in confinement and toil.