29
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28
making a total of 5,350,000 dollars, to provide all the material required for carrying this additional traffic. The estimated additional annual profit from coal business only is 1.150,000 dollars, which is sufficient to yield a return of 21 per cent, on the additional invested capital. If we add to this the profit to be derived from other new traffic and greater facility of working generally, a return of 30 per cent, is not too much to expect. You will see from these figures. Gentlemen, that from the railway point of view the doubling of this part of the line is financially more than sound. It is an excellent paying proposition,
"I have gone into this instance fairly fully. Gentlemen, because it bears out my previous observation that the Chinese railways are suffering great loss of revenue by delaying much-needed reforms. Any assistance, therefore, that this conference can give will be not only in the interests of ourselves as British merchants, but will also distinctly benefit the railways by ultimately increasing their actual and relative earning capacity."
In supporting this resolution, a visitor from Tsinanfu gave some interesting facts, which have since been amplified, and are as follows:
"The principal handicap to trade on the Tientsin-Pukow Railway is the shortage of rolling stock, which results in extreme difficulty and great delay in obtaining goods cars. I have been able to obtain a transcript of the car order book kept at Tsinan station for the first fifteen days of October. It is as follows:-
Cars on Order. Cars Supplied.
"It is interesting, for example, to institute a comparison between the Tien-tsin- The Pukow Railway, 690 miles, and the South Manchurian Railway, 697 miles. following is a complete list of the rolling-stock at present on the Tien-tsin Pukow Railway :-
Passenger cars-
Saloon cars
Private cars
1st sleeping cars Drawing-room cars Dining cars Composite cars 2nd class cars... Buffet cars 3rd class cars
Sundry cars
Post cars Baggage cars
Brake cars
4 10
10
8
7
8
16
6
93
10
12
6
Guard cars
21
Brake and post
4
Heating
6
Paymaster
2
500
Date.
Tons.
Tons.
October 1
4.500
1.000
2
4,500
nil
3
8,000
150
54
4
10,000
1.700
5
9,000
nil
11,000
1,000
10.000
350
8
10.000
nil
Service cars-
Crane cars
Weighing cars Tool vans Ballast cars
LOM
6
1
5
97
9
10,000
nil
10
12,000
nil
Goods cars-
11
13,000
nil
+
15-ton lowsided
49
12
10,000*
600
:
15
13
11,000
1,600
3
covered 20 lowsided
131
12
14
9,000
1.800
11
20
15
14,000
nil
12
highsided
120
30 lowsided
110
30
9.733
546
FF
highsided
340
30 flat
30
+
20
covered
230
30
covered
279
15
bighsided
4
10
Average per day
"Part of the enormous disparity between cars ordered and cars supplied is, of course, due to the fact that Chinese merchants order in excess of their requirements, but it can be calculated from the above figures that the average delay in supplying cars is about eighteen days. A British company doing business in Tsinanfu have worked out the delay in obtaining ten cars of 15 tons capacity and ten cars of 30 tons capacity. The average delay for the 15-ton car was ten days, varying between six and twenty-five days, and the average delay for the 30-ton car was seven days, vary- ing between five and fourteen days. This delay is less than the average worked out from the car order book, but this is due to the fact that the company to which I refer is a large concern enjoying considerable influence with the railway company. Smaller firms with less influence are subjected to much more serious delays. These delays. moreover, occur at Tsinan. which is a district head station, where the traffic inspector At has authority to commandeer any empty cars attached to through trains. smaller stations, where permission has to be obtained from the district chief inspector One instance has been before cars may be detached. the delays are much greater. brought to my notice at Tsowhsien, where it took over two months to obtain a 15-ton car for the return of certain cargo to Tsinan.
"Shortage of rolling stock is at present a very common complaint not only in China but in the case of railways all over the world. It is due to causes produced by the war over which railway directors have no control, but it is a significant fact that in China the railways which are under Chinese management are suffering much more severely than those under foreign control.
• Orders cancelled.
30
Locomotives
tank-cars
Northern section-
10 shunting engines. 20 goods engines.
20 passenger engines.
4 super-beating engines.
4 tank engines.
16 Mikado type engines.
Southern section-
40 locomotives.
1,315
Twelve more locomotives have been ordered, six for the northern section and
six for the southern section, and are due to arrive shortly. It is also proposed to order 300 more goods waggons, but the matter is not decided.
[5815 c-3]
I