Some Interesting Railway Facts.

Facts are stranger than fiction—and more fascinating. If the pessimists who, on grounds of impracticability, vigorously opposed the construction of Britain's first railway could rise from their graves and read a little pamphlet “Some facts about British Railways” which has recently come into our hands, they would laugh at their former incredulity and no doubt agree with the dictum that prophecy (especially about the future of railways), unless the prophet knows, is not only a risky but a discomfiting thing—for the prophet.

The pamphlet referred to summarises a great deal of useful and illuminating information. For instance we learn that in 1925 (the last normal year) the income of the British railways was £218,000,000, a figure exceeded only by the revenue obtained from income tax; and their expenditure was £191,000,000 a sum second only to the amounts paid on the National Debt and for the administration of the Civil Services. It is interesting to observe also that no less a sum than £1,100,000,000 of capital is invested in the British railway industry.

The track, stations and rolling stock cost over £950,000,000, whilst £40,000,000 is the average annual expenditure for the maintenance and renewal of this equipment. The track itself would stretch twice round the world, and the number of passengers carried by the four main line groups each year is equivalent to twenty-seven journeys for every man, woman and child in the British Isles. The mileage run by passenger and freight trains annually is well over 370,000,000, or approximately equivalent to two journeys to the sun and back.

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