RAILWAY COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 16

RAILWAY COSTS.

THE RISE !N EXPENSES.

BIG INCREASE SINCE 1917.

DOMINION COMPARED WITH AUSTRALIAN STATES. In face of requests for higher pay for a section of workers employed on the New Zealand railways, and the refusal of the Board of Management to increase working costs by substantially enlarging the wages bill, it is of interest to review facts in connection with the working of the railway system over the period between 1917 and the present time. There are certain figures in the bulky official report —which would take j more than a day for the average man! to read intelligently —that never come j to the knowledge of the general public, ! for they are hidden away in involved I statements, charts and diagrams, which j are beyond the comprehension of the | man in the street, who is the fellow who has to pay to have "things done." Since 1917 railway revenue and railway expenditure have joined in a sharp upward race, with revenue always in the lead, but by no means so far in the lead as it was in 1917, when it totalled j approximately £4,700,000, and expendi- j ture was only £2,900,000. The margin was £1,800,000. That margin dwindled to £79,023 during the twelve months ended March 31, 1926. Reducing Working Expenses. Total working expenses per train ] mile have been reduced since 1922 to a! little under 12/. The peak was reached I in that year, when the cost was as high j as 14/3, having mounted from 6/3 in 1917. The rise was very sharp in 1919, when expenses soared from 8/9 to 10/. Again, in 1920, the cost rose to 11/8, and in 1921 to 13/9. Traffic transportation has shown the highest rise of any one department included in the total working expenses. In 1917 it rose from under 2/ per mile to 2/5, jumping quickly to 3/5 in 1919. The working expenses per mile were at their highest in 1922, with traffic transportation costing 3/11. An immediate reduction was made, however,. and two ' years later the cost was about 3/6. It has now been reduced to 3/4. Locomotive transportation also showed a sensational rise over the period between 1917 and 1922, mounting as it did from a cost of about 1/6 to 4/8. In two years it was reduced to 3/1 per mile. To-day the working cost per mile is about 3/2. Maintenance of cars and wagons has also increased enormously since 1917, when the cost per mile was a little over 1/, whereas to-day it is 2/6. The maintenance of ways and works has increased from 1/6, in 1917, to 2/2. General charges and signals show very slight increases over the same period. Operating Costs. The total operating expenditure for the whole of the railways' system amounted to £6,164,569 last year. Of that amount, 20.61 per cent was madup by traffic transportation, locomotive transportation adding 18.64 per cent. Working expenses—as distinct from operating expenditure—totalled £G,468,427, or 76.46 per cent of the whole cost of the system.-;-* .j-ves's Of every -./spent last year on the whole undertaking, traffic transportation costs took 4/I*, and. locomotive transportation 3/B|. Computed on the basis of actual train operation costs, locomotive transportation made np 4/2, of each £1 spent, and traffic 4/7 A. New .Zealand's High Percentage. With the exception of. Tasmania, all the Australian States had a lower percentage of working expenses to earnings than did New Zealand, taking the year 1925 for purposes of comparison. Thus, Victoria's percentage was 75.59, that of New South Wales was 7-.30, Queensland 76.31, South Australia |31i6, and Western Australia 70.10. Compare this with: New Zealand's percentage of 78.46. On the other hand, Tasmania had the high percentage of expenses to earnings of 96.96. The percentage of net earnings to -capital, also computed on 1925 returns, chows that the New Zealand railways earned 3.55 per cent, as compared with 5:01 earned in New South Wales, 4.61 in Victoria, 4.90 in South Australia, 4.94 in Western Australia, 3.24 in Queensland, and 0.26 in Tasmania. More Earned Per Mile Here. The figure's quoted are of little value without reference to the areas of country , served in the various States, the populalation, and mileage of railroads. Tasmania,, for. instance, with an area of 26,215 square miles, and a population of 211,906, has only 673 miles- of iine opened for operation, whereas New Zealand, with an area of 103,861 square miles, and a population of 1,379,487 was operating a total length of 3085 in 1925. Queensland, a State which earned a -little more than our Dominion on her railways system in that year, has a population of 855,214, and with 6114 miles of line opened for traffic boasts the biggest railway undertaking in Australasia. The next largest system is that of New South Wales, with 5656 miles of railroad, earning 17.2.75 d per mile, as compared with 157.60 d earned in New Zealand. N.S.W. System Worked For Less. It will thus be seen that the New Zealand system earns considerably more than the New South Wales undertaking, but the balance is turned against us when we learn that the Australian system cost only 123 d per train mile in working expenses, as against 146.19 din New Zealand—a difference of about 2/, which more than offsets the favourable earning balance of 1/3. On the working of the New Zealand system in 1925 a profit of £1,567,108 was made, that being a greater profit than was enjoyed by South Australia, Western Australia, or Tasmania. The biggest profit made on any system in Austral- , asia was £4,829,766, this amount being cleared by the New South Wales system. Victoria, with the handsome profit of '-3,114,382, was- next, and Queeensland' third with £1,684,043, which was less than the New Zealand profit of £1,873,940 in 1917. Record Year in 19x7. It is a significant. fact that in 1917 the net earnings per train mile on the New Zealand system were about v 4/2, and working expenses 6/5. Despite-the fact that 2,000,000 fewer passengers were carried in that year than in 1925, that , the tonnage of goods handled was some "2,000,000 tons less, and that 'the earnings per head of population were £4 3/5," -.as against £5 3/1, -in 1925, the record of £1,837,946 was made on the working. ..There were 2970 miles of line open for traffic, while "in 1925 there were 3085. " ]