# L. THE WORKING COSTS AND PROFITABILITY
The working costs and profitability of the railway line are examined in detail below.
To calculate the gross earnings, working expenses, and profit, the following figures are used:
Gross Earnings: $21.45
Working Expenses: $5.85
Profit: $15.60
To carry this traffic, it will be necessary to run 5 passenger trains per day each way and one goods train. The passenger train would consist of about 8 coaches at least, each 60 ft. long.
Summarising the above figures for passengers, the cost of running these 10 passenger trains works out to $642/- per day or 64/20 per train, 2/92 per train mile or cents 36.50 per coach mile, which is rather high even for the large coach proposed.
I do not think my working expenses are on the small side by any means. I have no figures for Chinese Railway, but in no Indian Railway is the cost taken as high as this.
Summarising the above figures, the following is the result:
TRAFFIC GROSS EARNINGS WORKING EXPENSES PROFIT Canton Passengers 1089.00 566.50 522.50 Sam Chun 71.50 30.80 40.70 Taipo 71.75 31.20 40.55 Local Market 22.50 13.50 9.00 Canton goods 262.00 131.00 131.00 Sam Chun Local 242.00 176.00 66.00 Total 1780.20 935.35 844.85 Total per mile 38.40 20.18 18.22This gives the percentage of working expenses of gross earnings at 47.45%, which is not very much out. I do not think, though, the working expenses per mile is very high.
The corresponding figures for the Imperial Railways of North China are Gross Earnings 59/-, Working Expenses 17/-, Profits 42/- per day per mile, giving a percentage of Working Expenses as 28% of the Gross Earnings. The line being longer, the Working Expenses are...