Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1899 — State Railway System of Belgium. [ARTICLE]

State Railway System of Belgium.

The state railway system, of Belgium, is estimated as the most profitable commercial undertaking, both to the government and to the people, ever promulgated in Europe. It consists of 2,800 miles, of which 2,000 are government property. Its profits more than pay the entire interest on the Belgian national debt. The Belgian railways have been the making of the nation, as from a comparatively insignificant agricultural commonwealth it has lately developed into a humming bee hive of commercial activity. Other European governments own railways, although In no case has the experiment proved so successful as in Belgium. Germany, In addition to a large quantity of stock in the railway world, has created the North Sea canal, France, Holland and Russia are also largely Interested in their own railroads. Of purely departmental workings the British Post is by far the most profitable in Europe.