RAILWAY FINANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1945, Page 3

RAILWAY FINANCE

NET REVENUE DOWN Railway revenue for the year ended March 31 last was not as.great as the record returns of the previous year. The net revenue was £1,199,473, compared with £2,567,970 the previous year. The net revenue represents a return of 1.69 per cent, on the average capital cost of opened lines, compared with a return of 3.71 per cent, for the previous year. The gross revenue for the financial « year was £14,459,750. Though well in excess of the gross revenue earned during the pre-war and early war years, this figure represents a decrease of £865,556 on the record figure established in 1943-44. Passenger revenue declined by £771,029 or 18.03 per cent., and goods revenue by £218,300 or 2.57 per cent. One .factor in these decreases is the falling of in military , fares and freights, fares from* this source decreasing by'aproximately £230,000 and freights by £224,000. The main cause of the decrease was the shortage of coal, which necessitated restrictions on services throughout the whole year. Had it not been, for this factor it is considered that the decline in military fares and freights would have been more than offsefe The gross expenditure for the-year :,-. was £13,260.277, a rise of £502,941, or 3.94 per cent. In consequence of the decisions of the Government' Railways Industrial Tribunal, the total working expenses wages bill rose by £864,247, and the additional cost of increases in ; salaries, wages and allowances, and improved staff conditions granted during, the year chargeable to working expenses is estimated ■to have been £752,190. Both the revenue and the expenditure of the miscellaneous and subsidiary services showed an increase, main.ly T3ecause of variations in the road service returns.