THE WORLD'S RAILWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 14932, 19 July 1912, Page 8

THE WORLD'S RAILWAYS.

Three thousand million pounds wis .'■fated at ihe Statistical Society in London Tecemlv to br> the aggregate amount oi capital' provided by the people of Great Britain for the construction and equipment of raiiwavs throughout the. world. The* > remarkable figures -.ppeared amongst other striking detail?. Lr.st year's returns showed"' that the maintenance expenditure per mile of road varied from £364 to £9lO. The South-Eastern, not a. specially wealthy company, spent £BOO per mile; whilst the South-Western, a much wealthier undertaking, expended only £624. Yet there were no data to show the cause. Again, whilst the London and South-Western spent £945 ]vr locomotive running expenses, the North -Eastern spent only £525 ; but f-till there were no data to show the cause. The earnings per train mile wer* the onlv available" measure of the slri'il with which the traffic was now conveyed. and those showed such wide differences that the problem grew deeper at every stage. The new Railway Companies /Accounts and Returns) Act, passed last vear, provided for statistical returns more WiLiizhtcnincr than those now available but "no provision was made for essential information. Contrasted with this vai strong evidence showins the value of American accounts as information to the public and. as help to economy for the railwave themselves.