Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - XIII. Internal Communications - 1. Railways. By G. Welin, Bureau Director, State Railway Board - Management. Tariff - Traffic and Finances
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RAILWAYS. TRAFFIC AND FINANCES.
989
The rates of wages vary of course on different lines and for different kinds
of service. In the main, these may be said to equal, or to be higher than those
paid on railways in neighbouring countries. The marked increase of låte in the
expenses of living has, however, led to regulations in the wages of the staff. With
regard to Government railways, such regulations came into operation at the
beginning of 1898; and in respect to many of the private lines, regulations have
the last few years gradually taken place. A signalman or porter on the
Government railways at present enjoys, including 250 kronor (a krona = l"i o shilling)
being the value of house furnished with fuel, and 96 kronor for clothing, as a
minimum 826, as a maximum 1,126 kronor a year. A line-man gets, including
the same privileges, at least 826, at most 1,006 kronor per annum. From these
wages, however, are deducted the fees the staff is obliged to pay towards pensions.
The system of self-help in the form of Savings- and Relief funds, Life Insurance
Unions, and such like institutions has become extremely popular amongst railway
employés throughout the entire kingdom; and, in connection with these, mention
should be made of the Pension institutions established and which — with the
object partly of affording security for the members themselves in old age, partly
as a means of support for those they may leave behind them — are supported;
that formed for the staff of the Government railways, by the Public Treasury;
and that instituted for the staff of the private railways, by the lines interested.
No railway lines from a purely strategical point of wiew, have
up till now been built in Sweden, but the project for every proposed
new line must be scrutinized beforehand by the Staff general, with
regard to military claims. The control of works for the use of
railways for military objects, belongs in the first place to the chief of a
special Department of the Staff general for matters relating to
communications, in which department careful plans for making use of
railways in mobilizing, strategical deployment, and concentration of troops
are elaborated. At the field-manoeuvres of more or less importance,
which annually take place, the railways and their staffs have proved
themselves equal to the military requirements.
Traffic and Finances.
At the end of 1901, the capital invested in all the railways built
in Sweden was estimated in round figures to a total of 760 million kronor,
which is equivalent to about 67,000 kronor per kilom, (or 5,800 £ per mile).
This average figure is lower than in any other country in Europe. On
the average a kilometer of European railway costs something like 258,000
kronor, quite four times as much as a kilometer of Swedish railway.
The cause of this remarkably low cost of construction in Sweden must, in the
first place, be sought in the fact that almost all our lines are still single, and
generally, as calculated for a less heavy traffic than the great main-lines abroad, can
have restricted themselves to a less extensive arrangement of railway stations and
of rolling stock. A number of other circumstances also contribute to the low cost of
construction, viz. that the requisite ground often, more especially on the long stretches
across Norrland, has been furnished free of cost by the County Councils, parishes,
and private persons, and that the construction of lines, with the exception of the
above mentioned costly bridges, has been carried out without expensive erections.
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