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Rates in respect of Merchandise comprised in Classes B, C, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. London and North Western Railway (Rates and Charges) Order

For the

Confirmation Act, 1891.

Maximum Rates for Conveyance.

first 20 Miles

Class of Traffic.

or any part of such Distance.

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Maximum Station and Service Terminals.

The average maximum station terminals, 10 common to all railway companies, with the two exceptions already alluded to, are as follows:

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The actual cost of these terminal charges to the Loudon and North Western Company in 1894 being as much as 38. 2d. per ton, as already stated. (Table 7.)

10 Table F, Appendix.

Cost of Station Terminals.

Some idea is afforded of the large amount of capital expended by this Company in the construction and equipment of their terminal and other stations, with many miles of sidings, covering acres of valuable land in the immediate vicinity of our large towns, by simply drawing attention to the fact that considerably more than a quarter of a million sterling is annually spent in their maintenance alone, as will be seen from the following abstract.

Cost of terminal Services.

A glance at the items included under the heads of "Traffic "Expenses," "General Charges," &c., is sufficient to show that in addition to the "handling" services rendered at stations in "load"ing," "unloading," "covering," and "uncovering," for which some provision has been made in the Acts of 1891 and 1892, the great bulk of them are for the most part directly chargeable as service "terminals," such for instance as are included in the chief item of "Salaries and Wages" (1,700,1877.)," which almost exclusively represents the amounts paid to those employed at terminal and other stations; while by far the largest portion of the cost of the other items, such as general charges, is attributable to the indirect services rendered by the staff, from the general manager down to the office boy, which are equally chargeable to this branch of the service. The question is how has the cost of these services, exceeding two and a-half millions sterling per annum (2,654,844l.), been provided for in the rates and charges Acts of 1891 and 1892, as it is quite evident they should be, either under the head of "Conveyance" or "Terminal Charges?" It is clear they cannot properly be attributed to the former, inasmuch as the expenses of 'conveyance" mainly relate to the maintenance of the way and works, and to the locomotive, carriage, and wagon expenses, full particulars of which are separately given in the railway company's accounts.

66

Table A, Part V, Appendix.

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The comparison made between the authorised maximum rates and charges for conveyance and the actual expenses incurred by that Company in connection with this important branch of its railway business, would in the first place certainly appear, from the comparatively small average receipts per ton per mile this Company derives from the higher classes of merchandise traffic, to indicate that the greater portion consists of the lower classes of merchandise, and in the next place that, having regard to the very large proportion the terminal expenses constitute in the working of a railway, no adequate allowance has been made in the terminal rates and charges authorised by the Railway Acts of 1891 and 1892, either in respect of goods or mineral traffic.

Another and most important conclusion to be drawn from these investigations is the proof afforded that the railway companies have nothing to fear but everything to gain by furnishing fuller information in their annual reports, such, for instance, as was for many years given in the London and North Western reports already alluded to, which, it is needless to say, would materially

assist in ascertaining the actual cost of "conveyance" and of the "station and service terminals" expenses, and also make clear to the public what evidently they at present have no adequate idea of, viz., the large proportion they bear to the very moderate rates and charges which as a rule are made by the principal railway companies in this country.

The expense and the difficulty involved in dealing with "mixed "trains," which appear to be the main obstacles to this information being afforded, constitute but a small factor in the case, inasmuch as any reasonable, even if arbitrary, apportionment of these minor expenses would in no appreciable way affect the reliability of the results; and as regards additional cost and labour, these would be more than compensated for by affording the railway companies the means of satisfying the freighters and the public generally that the railway rates actually charged are not, as generally imagined, arbitrarily determined without reference to the cost involved, but based on sound reliable data.

Whatever objections may be taken to the method employed by the writer of the paper in the apportionment of the working expenses to the different classes of the London and North Western Railway Company's traffic, it should be borne in mind that the same method has been adopted throughout, the results obtained affording reliable means at least of ascertaining the great changes which have occurred in the traffic of that railway during the long period of thirty-five years; he, however, is of opinion that the method affords the means of determining, within narrow limits of error, the expenses properly attributable to each of the three great branches of railway traffic business, viz., the passenger, goods, and mineral traffic, and also of determining the cost of conveyance and of the terminal expenses incident to each.

It only remains to draw attention to the very significant fact that these large terminal expenses represent but an average, by far the greater portion of the expenses being attributable to the terminal and principal stations; in view of this and of the present very moderate average rate charged for conveyance by the railway companies, as illustrated in the typical case of the London and North Western Railway, there would appear to be feasible possibilities of tariff readjustments being made by the railway companies themselves, well outside the actual expenses incurred, such as would offer sufficient inducements for the investment of capital in developing the latent traffic resources of many rich districts in this country at present far too remote, if measured by distance, from great commercial centres to afford any prospect of a profitable market being obtained for either agricultural or any other kind of produce.

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APPENDIX. TABLE A-PART I. LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY, 1894.

Traffic Receipts, Working Expenses, and Net Receipts. Ratios used in Apportionment of Expenses.

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