CO129-519-6 Development of railways proposed by Chinese Government 7-9-1929 - 17-1-1930 — Page 41

Observations on Document referred to in His

Excellency's minute of 7.9.29.

41

2.

1. My first impression is naturally, that much energy

has been displayed in searching for problematic and extraneous traffic, when by the simple procedure of making the "loop

line" the legitimate additional traffic, both passonger and

goods, would naturally result. Passenger and goods destined

eventually for points on the Yuet Han Railway and vice versa,

would, once on rails, remain on rails, and be naturally

diverted from the river without any trouble or rate war. It

is however obvious that the rehabilitation of the Chinese

Section requires prior attention, and for this purpose money

must be found.

2. The document is most interesting, but it contains

certain inaccuracies, some of which would appear to be vital

to the success of the scheme.

3. On page 10, it is apparently estimated that practic-

ally the whole of the river passenger traffic can be captured,

and as many as 2,000 through passengers in addition, besides

extra revenue from road feeders of $1,000. On this purely

imaginary increase of daily revenue, from $4,500 as at the

present time (page 3) to $8,000, and on the assumption that

operating expenses will be reduced to below the actual figure

for 1928 (page 3) and not increased at all, an annual net

revenue of $1,370,000 is arrived at, which is just about the

sum required for the service of the loans (page 12).

A.

Para. 2, page 3. "1929 The improvemont continued

till May's suspension but immediately after the revenue

regained previous level. This is not so, revenue has not

recovered yet.

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The normal number of through express passengers per

day this year up to the date of suspension in May averaged

3,100 to 3,200, which was a great improvement on last year's