GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

188 THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF INDIA
finances as well as in railway finance. Under those conditions
of effective Indianization, state-management of
railways is likely to be less costly than it has been up till
now. But otherwise the railway experience of India
during the last three quarters of a cen.tury should tend to
leave the question open as to the relative merits of the twosy~tems
so far IilS efficiency and economy are concerned ..
It is well known, further, that for forty years down to
11899 the Indian railways were annual deficit charges on
the public revenues. For these deficits the private railways
were as much responsible as the state. Since 1899
the railways have been every year, excepting during
1908-09 and 1920-21, making quite mentionable profits.
And since the separation of railway finance from the
general finances in 1924, the Railway Board has been
contributing some Rs.· 60,000,000 p.a. to the Government;
An analysis of the earnings of the first class railway
companies, both priv~te and state-managed, would
furnish some in.teresting data bearing on this recent trend.
Let us take the following table of a general character for
the year 1927-28:
All Railways
Total capital at chiuge Rs. 8,228,625,000
Total route-mileage 39,711.58
Net earnings on capital outlay 5.58%
State-owned Railways
Rs. 7,228,78 I,OO(}
28,426-
5.40%
The figures indicate that the net earnings on all railways
combined are a little bit higher than those on
. state-owned railways; But f~r general purposes they may
. be taken to be on the same leveL
We shall now place the figures of the 14 companies.
in the alphabetical order and study their growth from 1921