A study in railway economics : with special reference to the government railways of Tasmania

1. This thesis has been undertaken as a first attempt to an analysis of the economics of railway transport in Australia. The first intention was merely a study of the revenue and expenditure of the Tasmanian Government Railways, but in order to get the necessary perspective, it was essential to study the methods of other Australian railway sustems as well. This part of the work is contained in the first nine sections of the thesis, which also includes the geographic and historical settings of the problem. 2. In the processs of gathering the material for this part of the work a lot of interesting material was met with concerning the capital position of both the Tasmanian and other Australian railway systems and some of the other problems facing Australian railways. It happened fortunately that while the thesis was being written the Royal Commission enquiring into the position of the Victorian Railways was sitting, and a lot of material, much of which will soon be buried in the back files of Melbourne newspapers, became available. For this reason the last four sections were added to the thesis, which therefore naturally falls into two parts. Since the completion of the work the Victorian Commission has issued its report, and as the evidence before the Commission has been referred to in several places, an appendix (No. XIV) has been added dealing briefly with some of the relevant findings of the Commission. The Mechanical Transport Sub- Committee of the Development and Migration Commission is at present investigating the position of the Tasmanian Railways, but has so far published no report, and has not taken evidence in public.