Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1916 — FEW NEW LINES IN 1915 [ARTICLE]

FEW NEW LINES IN 1915

Railroad Construction During the Past Year Has Been Comparatively Unimportant. In the United States in 1915 only 933 miles of new railroad were constructed, as against 1,532 in 1914 and 3,071 in 1913. The total was the smallest since 1864.' The longest new construction for any one state was Pennsylvania with 98 miles. There are now about 242,000 miles of railroad in the whole oountry. Of this 38,661 miles were in receivership at the close of the year. The statistics have been compiled by the Railway Age-Gazette.. The number of freight cars built In the year was 74112, against 104-.-&44-in 1914 and 207,684 in 1913, and the number of locomotives and passenger cars built was smaller thap iu any Tecent years except 1908. The length of railroads in the United States operated under the block signal system on January 1 of this year was 97,809 miles, an Increase of 9,677 in the year. The automatic block signal mileage was 31,160, an Increase of 1,471 miles since 1914. Limiting of income by government regulation is blamed by the Railway Age Gazette for the small expenditures for extensions and improvements, and it adds that the situation is improving, owing to a change in public and ofllcial sentiment toward the roads. The new railroad construction in Canada last year was 718 miles, as against 1,978 in 1914, and In Mexico it , was 36.5 miles as compared with none in 1914.