YearPassenger, centsFreight, cents18671.9941.92518702.3921.88918752.3781.42118802.4421.23218852.2161.01118902.1670.94118952.0400.83918962.0190.806
YearPassenger, centsFreight, cents18671.9941.92518702.3921.88918752.3781.42118802.4421.23218852.2161.01118902.1670.94118952.0400.83918962.0190.806
HAGERMAN PASS ON COLORADO MIDLAND R. R.
HAGERMAN PASS ON COLORADO MIDLAND R. R.
While the reduction in passenger rates has been comparatively small, it must be remembered that the safety, speed, comfort, and service have greatly improved. The marked reduction in freight rates has been made possible only by a still greater and more remarkable reduction in the cost of transportation. This has been effected by consolidation of companies, by improvements in roadway, bridges, etc., and by the introduction of heavier trains, with engines of greater power and cars of greater capacity. This economy can be still further extended. The reduction in rates has been much greater than that in the prices of commodities. Rates for wheat and hay, for instance, have decreased 23 and 20 per cent more than the market prices, and the rate for shipping anthracite coal to tidewater has decreased 50 per cent in the past ten years, while the price of the coal has decreased only 10 per cent. The average freight rate on the Pennsylvania Railway in 1898 was0.536 cent per ton per mile, while the cost was 0.369 cent. The cheapness of transportation in the United States is shown by the following figures for 1898:—
Passengers carried one mile13,000,000,000Tons of freight carried one mile95,000,000,000Revenue from passenger service$26,000,000Revenue from freight service$62,000,000Distance railway carries 1 passenger to earn $1 profit500 milesDistance railway carries 1 ton to earn $1 profit1530 milesAverage profit per passenger (including baggage) per mile2-10 centAverage profit per ton per mile1-15 cent
Passengers carried one mile13,000,000,000Tons of freight carried one mile95,000,000,000Revenue from passenger service$26,000,000Revenue from freight service$62,000,000Distance railway carries 1 passenger to earn $1 profit500 milesDistance railway carries 1 ton to earn $1 profit1530 milesAverage profit per passenger (including baggage) per mile2-10 centAverage profit per ton per mile1-15 cent
The lowest passenger rates in the world are on the Indian railways. In Europe the passenger rates average higher than in the United States, though the accommodation is inferior.
Railway transportation has almost entirely superseded barge, canal, and river transportation, except in special cases. This is due to the greater speed, the greater efficiency of service, the greater carrying capacity, and the extent to which spurs and branches are built to enable cars to reach mills, factories, and other industrial plants. It was for a long time held that the low rates of water transportation exerted an influence in keeping railway rates down, but with the present condition of the latter this no longer holds good as a general proposition, especially for the limited capacity of barge canals. The rates established for wheat and corn from Buffalo to New York by rail in 1899 are about 0.23 and 0.18 cent per ton per mile, which is but little above the canal rates, while rail shipments are much more advantageous.
The railway system is a vast employer of labor, directly and indirectly, and several million persons in the United States derive their support from the various railway industries, without taking into account such allied industries as rail mills, bridge works, locomotive works, and car works, etc. The number of direct railway employees (exclusive of the employees of terminal and sleeping-car companies, fast freight lines, etc.) is over 820,000, or over 1.2 per cent of the total population. A large proportion of these represent skilled labor of a high degree of intelligence. France has about 1110 employees per mile of railway, and 10 per cent of these are women. The figures for the United States and Great Britain are asfollows:—
United StatesGreat Britain18901897185718891895Miles of railway163,597184,4288,94219,94321,174Number of employees749,301823,476109,660381,626465,412Number of employees per 100 miles4794491,2301,9002,197Number of employees per cent of population1.21.20.41.01.2
United StatesGreat Britain18901897185718891895Miles of railway163,597184,4288,94219,94321,174Number of employees749,301823,476109,660381,626465,412Number of employees per 100 miles4794491,2301,9002,197Number of employees per cent of population1.21.20.41.01.2
The railway service especially demands some better and more intimate relation between the employers and employees than that of the mere buying and selling of labor for a price. Both humanity and self-interest have led several railways in this country and abroad to establish relief departments, providing temporary financial aid in case of accident or sickness, with otherforms of benefits in addition, the object being to induce men to continue permanently in the employ of the road. Such associations have existed in England since 1850, in Canada since 1873, and in the United States since 1880, when one was started by the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. In 1896 there were six of these associations in the United States, with an aggregate of about 125,000 members. The six railway systems owned 15 per cent of all the mileage and had 20 per cent of all the railway employees in the country.
Before closing this review of railway development, brief reference may be made to certain special classes of railways.
VIEW NEAR VERRUGAS, ON LINE OF OROYA RAILWAY, PERU.
VIEW NEAR VERRUGAS, ON LINE OF OROYA RAILWAY, PERU.
Mountain Railways.—These include lines either isolated or forming part of main lines, having grades so steep as to require special means of traction. They may be operated by (A) cables, (B) grip rails, or (C) rack rails. Cables are used for many short lines, but are now rarely adopted for regular railway working. The grip rail system was first used on the Mont Cenis railway in 1867, and has been used in later years in Brazil and New Zealand. Rack rails were used in 1848 on the incline near Madison, Indiana (U. S. A.). In 1866 they were used on the Mount Washington railway (U. S. A.), (with the Marsh rack), this being the first mountain-climbing railway. In 1885, the Abt rack-rail system was introduced, and is a great improvement. It has been used both for ordinary railway service and for special mountain lines.
Rapid Transit.—Street or surface railways for city traffic date from 1831, in New York, and were operated by horses until 1873, when cable traction was introduced. Electric traction was introduced in Germany in 1881and in the United States in 1884, and the growth of this system was such that in 1894 it was in use on 9000 miles in this country and 195 miles in Europe. Locomotives operated by steam, gas, compressed air, etc., have been used to a limited extent. For high speeds it was necessary to remove the railway from the street surface. The first elevated railway was built in New York in 1869, and now New York, Brooklyn, and Chicago have about 100 miles, operated by electricity and steam. The only foreign railway on this system is at Liverpool (England), the line being 5 miles long, and operated by electricity. The first underground railway was opened in London in 1863, and that city now has several miles of such railway, mostly operated by steam locomotives. Two underground electric lines are in operation and another is being built. Budapest (Hungary) and Boston (Mass.) have also underground electric railways. New York has for years needed and demanded a railway of this character, but political methods and extravagant demands for franchise rights have prevented the commencement of work upon the line.
Military Railways.—Railways cannot be made available to any extent for tactical purposes, but are of great importance as a means of supply and communication. They were used by the Russians in the Crimean war (1854), and were prominent features in some of the campaigns of the American Civil War (1861–65). In the Franco-German war (1870), the German army advancing on Paris was closely followed by a military railway, and in the Soudan campaign of 1898–99, the British army carried with it the head of a railway communicating with the base of supplies on the Nile.
Portable Railways.—These are narrow-gauge lines of light construction, for use on plantations, in lumbering operations, on engineering construction works, and for pioneer railways. The rails are riveted to steel ties, forming complete sections of track, straight or curved, which can be laid down, taken up, or shifted, as required. Such a line, of 24 inches gauge, was used to carry passengers around the grounds of the Paris Exhibition of 1889.
Ship Railways.—These are projected as substitutes for ship canals, but none have been built in modern times, if we except a few small ones for canal boats, including one at the Columbia River rapids, in Oregon (U. S. A.). One was proposed for the Isthmus of Suez in 1860, and in 1879 Captain Eads strongly advocated one across Tehuantepec (Mexico), to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This line would be about 150 miles in length, and the cost is estimated at $50,000,000. In 1888 work was commenced on the Chignecto ship railway (Canada), at the head of the Bay of Fundy, but it has never been completed. The general principle of the system is to float the ship into a dock and deposit it upon a wheeled cradle of suitable form. This would then be raised by machinery and hauled along the railway by a number of locomotives.