RAILWAY FINANCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 116, 17 April 1939, Page 2

RAILWAY FINANCE.

FORTY-FOUR WEEKS’ WORKING. “Though the railway year does not end till March 31, interest attaches to a comparison of returns during the elapsed 44 weeks of tbe current year for which statistics are available with the position during that period of 1937-38,” states the Abstract of Statistics for March. “The number of passenger joiirneys during the 44 weeks was 19.217,377, as compared with 18,678,856 in a similar period of the last railway year, an increase of 2.9 per cent. The volume of goods traffic increased only slightly, the net ton-miles run during tbe period l>eing 456,692.000, as against 456,411.000 in 1937-38. “Railway working ■ revenue during tbe period amounted to £6,404.441, as compared with £6.244,052 in the same period of last railway vear. Operating expediture has risen from £6,082,719 to £6,478,408, so that the net result for the period is an excess of expenditure amounting to £73,967, as compared with an excess of revenue of £161,333 in the same period of 1937-38. _ It should he noted that the. final eight weeks are among the busiest of the railway year, and a substantial surplus of revenue for that period is the usual experience.”