CHEAP RAILWAYS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 32, 13 August 1864, Page 3

CHEAP RAILWAYS.

The ru'ii of the British railways is the costliness of their construction. What w : th the expense of preliminary legislation (we once saw a committee sitany; its seventy -second day at an average daily expense of £3000), what with douceurs and high prices to lo ■.•(!* of the soil possessin r '' parliamentary influence and otherwise (a' 3 (Scotch duke was bought up with £30,000 to allow or the passage through his estates of a line calculated in reality to immensely increase their value), and what with general extravagance in engineers and directors, the railways ->f our island have come into existence in circumstances to deny fair profits; hence the too late economy iv management AvJvich so ofteu leads to' accidents : hence scale of charges which makes railways s much less of a blessing to the Ci<m in unity than they might be. It would have been good for the babe' as yet unborn, if the business had been set about more deliberately and with fairer regard to the interests of all the pal-ties concerned. At length, rashness and 'unreason having done their worst w'th all 'i)he great lines and their principal branches, there appears a disposition to complete the iron-ways of the count iy on more rational principles. The -lay of cheap bra, uch railways for by-districts has come in, and is affording some remarkable remits. "We chance to be able to tell one interesting story concerning '-lie of thefirst of the cheap lines. In the hoi; era o'i IS-iss,,a direct railway from Edinburgh to Peebles, twenty-six miles, was projected at an estimated' expense of £350.000. The outer terminus being a town of only 2000. inhabitants in the midst of a pastoral region, this line must have proved ruinous to all concerned. The impending evil was seen in time, and the Act which had been obtained was not taken advantage of. "Five or six years afterwftvd, a" few judicious men planned a branch line seventeen miles, uniting the same two places, with a single sot of rails, at an expense of £90,000, and this was carried out at an actual expense of about £6000 a mi'e, including stations and plant, or £5000 when these were deducted. This little railway has been a great success ; it pays five and a half per cent., and is rapidly improving the district which it penetrates. The chiof features of difference between the two plans arewell worthy -.<f notice. In the first case there was the .double line of rails (on so short a distance, with three or even four trains a day wholly unnecessary) ; the landholders, as yet- unenlightened about their true interests, were to be bought up; the style of engineering was t<> be inagnificient in the highest degree. In the second case, the co-operatioi l of landlords, with moderate rates for laud, was held as an essential requisite, and was easily obtained; deep cuttings and lofty bridgings were avoided; the legislation cost but a trifle ; directors gave their time and care from public spirit alone ; in short, there was not a pouud 01 unnecessary expense incurred. About the same time, a considerably shorter, branch line, connecting. St. Andrews with the Edinburgh, Perth* and Dundee Mae, ''was effected on similar, principles, and with the like good results. Under a commission from tlie !French. (Groyernment, a M. Lanhaslatelyinspected the few; cheap, lines mi GJ-reat Britain and

Ireland ; M. Bergeron, formerly principal engineer to the has gone oyer.th^same.groiiad,;-a3^d-: their reports are* how' 'j^Titiished.'^Tjlie'^ee'blea. line, as in a manner the father of its,class, receives large' attention' and high 1 praise from these gentlemen, who fully admit the good consequences. to be derived from sudh economy of construction, and from calm, deliberate local management and co-opera-tion. .It is r indeed; only,, the;, oldastory; where there is concord and economy ? thei|e willir most:. ■■ probably be prosperity! ; : It requires' a public- spirited union of .landlords and .speculators, ; cheap engineering, , and the avoidance of all avoidable expense, to produce a successful district railway. In Scotland and in Ireland it appears that these principles are •' readily followed. Not so, we regret to learn, in England. 1 There, the magnificent engineer still rides triumphant. There it is impossible to get ja director "without pay, and, what is worse, without large and extravagant ideas. "Wje end by mentioning one important fact connected with the Peebles line : from first to last, no diredtor has received or asked one penny for his service. The English being a generous people while the Scotch are generally held to be (the reverse, it ought to be more easy, south of the Tweed, to "get directors who ,will act upon the same self-denying principle; but, some how, this does not seem to be i the case. — Ghambers.