This total number represents between a fourth and a fifth of the gross number carried in France during 1866—about eighty-four millions—and is in no way in accordance with its proportion, either as regards its gross receipts or its gross mileage, the former being, as just stated, more than a third, and the latter one-fourth of the total railway receipts and mileage of the empire; thus showing that the principal traffic of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Company is _long_ traffic; in this respect very strikingly resembling the traffic of the London and North-Western Railway Company. According to the testimony of M. Charles La Vollée, furnished in his very interesting work, “_Les Chemins de Fer en France_,” _Paris_, 1866, the average distance travelled by each passenger on French railways in 1865, was 40 kilometres (25 miles); average distance of a ton of merchandise, 140 kilometres (87½ miles); but as the average price of passenger travelling of all classes in France is only 5½ centimes per kilometre, equal to 9½ centimes per mile: of goods per ton, 6½ centimes per kilometre, equal to 10½ centimes per mile, it follows that each passenger and each ton of goods travels on the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway nearly double the average distance on all French railways. According to the investigations of M. La Vollée, the average cost of all three classes of passengers in England is 14½ centimes, or 1⅜d. per mile; goods precisely the same per ton. This gentleman makes the following calculation with regard to the saving effected in consequence of the substitution of railways for diligences in travelling. The latter, he says, sped their way at the rate of 6¼ miles an hour. Railways go at the rate of 25. For each of the 80,000,000 who were carried on French railways in 1865, there is a saving of 10 sous an hour, equal to 112,500,000 francs, or £4,500,000, and upon the transport of goods there would he a saving of ten millions sterling, supposing that all goods now carried by railway were to be carried by road.
The construction of railways cheaply in France is now occupying attention. A railway on this system was opened on the 25th of August last—the line from Fougères to Vitré, on the Chemin de Fer de l’Ouest. Its length is 23 miles, and it has been constructed for £100,000, or at the rate of £4,348 a mile, notwithstanding the fact that it is carried through a difficult country, necessitating numerous heavy works, the greatest of which is a viaduct constructed of granite 120 yards long, and 22 yards high. The rails are Vignoles pattern, 60 lbs. to the yard. The above price includes rolling stock, shops, and their equipment, &c. But everybody received “_argent sonnant_” as the works progressed, and the line was not opened until everything had been settled up and paid for. This is one of the secrets appertaining to the economic construction of railways.