NEW SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1063, 28 February 1911, Page 5

NEW SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

AN EXTENSIVE SCHEME. * CrTclccrapli-Prof. A^nrliitlon-ConvrUhl ! ■St. Petersburg, Fobruary 26.' Tho Government intends to build a Southern Siberian railway, the route being' from, Uralsk, via Orenbnrg, Akmolinsk,; and Semipalatinsk. The railway will,cost fifteen millions sterling. ":. .' ' TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS SUNK. ; ■ It was nnnonnced in June last that a Russian Ministerial Committee had approved of tho building of this line, the cost being , then given at -, This Eouthorn system will connect with the main line at tho Ob, and , will be.1500 miles in length. It willbavo a connecting branch between Totrapavlosk on the main line and Akmolinsk. ■ ' .' Tho Statistical Department of; the Russian Ministry of Communications put the construction outlay up to 1907 on.the Siberian and Manchurian' railways at JGSG,BOO,OOO. Tho losses. on exploitation during tho fourteen years which, have elapsed sinco 1806, when tho Western section of tho Siberian line was opened, are given, at .£43,500,000. ,Tho exploitation losses for the six years which will elapse before the present grandiose schemes are finished will amount to about JS12,500,000: This makes the total cost of tho completed Siberian railway as £204,900,000 (taking tho rouble at 2s. tho real cost is slightly more), or £20,000 per verst. In view of the fact that practically no compensation had to be paid for land, and that more than half tho lino runs through flat territory! the cost (says the "Westminster 'Gazette") seems-.enormous. From the- point, of. view of the Empire's finances, the two hundred million pounds seems practically lost, as there is no prospect of interest-covering profit being earned for decades to come.