On the 31st December, 1865, the capital paid up was £455,478,143. Miles opened for traffic, 13,289. Passengers conveyed in 1865 (exclusive of 97,147 holders of periodical tickets), 251,862,715, of whom 29,663,205 were first class, 70,783,241 second, and 151,416,269 third. Receipts from passenger traffic, &c., £16,572,051. Merchandise, 36,787,638 tons; minerals, 77,805,786 tons; live stock, 14,530,937 head. Receipts from these sources, £19,317,475. Total receipts, £35,890,073. The miles run by passenger trains were 71,206,818; by those for goods, minerals and cattle, 68,320,309; total, 139,527,127. Total working expenses, £17,149,073; their proportion to receipts, 48 per cent.
The length of the railways in Ireland is 1,948 miles. In Scotland it is about 2,350 miles, with gross traffic receipts of about £4,200,000, whilst the income derived from Irish railways did not exceed £1,800,000 in 1866. Thus the mileage of the Scotch railways is about a sixth of the total mileage of the United Kingdom; its receipts about a ninth, the total amount of British railway receipts for 1866, being about £37,800,000.[11] The proportions for Ireland are about a seventh of the total mileage—less than a twentieth of the total receipts. There are 35 separate Boards of Railway Directors in the sister kingdom, an average of 55½ miles of railway for each Board to attend to, but, inasmuch as the aggregate length of the nine longest Irish railways is 1,354 miles, it follows that the average length of each of the remaining 26 companies’ lines is not quite 23 miles. Each company has, besides its separate Board of Directors, its separate Secretary, separate Traffic Manager, separate Engineer, separate Locomotive Superintendent, and separate Accountant. Could the London and North-Western manage to sub-divide itself after the fashion of Irish Railway Companies, it would require a staff of 73 of every one of these officers. It is to be deplored that railway animosity[12] is, in its sphere, as intense in Ireland as that which has so-called religion, for its basis. Both inflict a fearful amount of injury upon the material interests and development of the country.
One of the most objectionable features in Irish railway management is the high rates of fares charged to passengers, but especially to those of the third class; in fact rendering third class carriages in a great measure unavailable for the persons for whose use they were specially intended by the Legislature. We are happy, however, to perceive a better, a larger, and a more liberal view is beginning to be taken in Ireland on this subject, for at the meeting of the shareholders of the Midland Great Western Railway—the second of Irish railways in extent and importance, the Chairman made lengthened reference to the subject. “It was,” said Mr. Ralph Cusack, “a bold policy to adopt a scale of fares unusually low, to establish a system of excursion trains every week to and from distant points, and to hold out special inducements to the very humblest classes to avail themselves of the facilities of railway travelling.” This policy, nevertheless, was adopted, but it will not be matter of surprise that it did not find favour at the Boards of Direction of other Companies, it being alleged to be totally unsuited to the circumstances of Ireland, even where the population is numerous and tolerably prosperous. The result, however, has been that, notwithstanding peculiar difficulties arising from the embarrassed circumstances of the railway previous to the present directors coming into office, the experiment has already been successful, and will be more so. As the chairman truly said, “people require to be educated in travelling, and that could only be done by holding out inducements that would draw the masses to the railways.” It is to be hoped that the thirty-four other boards of directors will adopt this liberal and enlightened policy. It will, we are convinced, prove alike beneficial to shareholders, and to the material interests of the country.
