– Georgetown to Mahaica (Part 6)
History this week
By Shammane Joseph
This is the sixth and final instalment in a series of articles which gives a brief overview of the History of the British Guiana railway with particular reference to the Georgetown-Mahaica link. This article concludes the recommendations of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the railways in British Guiana.
The East Coast line had its own special operating features. Its passenger traffic was mostly concentrated in the early morning hours when people moved into Georgetown and in the afternoon when they moved out. Five trains arrived at the terminus between 6:45 a.m. and 11 a.m. The next train arrived until nearly 6 pm, followed by two other trains within slightly more than an hour. Similarly only two trains left Georgetown in the morning and six in the afternoon and evening. Only two trains travelled the entire distance of the line each way. The peak traffic consisted of workers, schoolchildren and marketing villagers. This pattern of traffic had its advantage of increasing the capacity of the single lines, reducing the number of crossings, and limiting the chance of delay. On the other hand, it necessitated an early start from country stations, and trains either ran empty to those stations or were stationed there overnight.
There were four intermediate stations between Georgetown and Rosignol in addition to the two terminals where trains kept overnight. The procedure was costly and locomotives were kept under steam, crews were on duty overnight without producing revenue, accommodations were provided for them, while arrangements were made for cleaning fires, watering locomotives, and sweeping carriages. The introduction of diesel traction would have eliminated much of this expense. Diesel locomotives needed little attention, consumed no fuel or water when standing, and train crews could have their home at the station where trains started and ended their daily runs.
It was recommended that a close study be made of the possibility of concentrating the passenger train staff at one intermediate station. Mahaica – Mahaicony was indicated, in order to achieve savings in time and costs in the traffic and locomotive running departments. Preliminary consideration of this question showed that the timetable of passenger trains in each direction between Georgetown and Rosignol, even with the addition of one extra mixed train for local goods and third class passengers, were assured by a daily four diesel engines and eight crews, and with a fifth engine and two crews resting or standing by.
It was stated that the modernization of the equipment would have substantially reduced operating, repair and maintenance costs. Reductions in staff had always presented problems. It was believed that unless savings were effected in the operating costs the railway could not efficiently serve the economy and many would be forced to cease operations. It was suggested, that to avoid the hardship that a sudden cut in personnel would entail, the size of the staff was to be decreased gradually, mainly by not filling vacancies as they occurred, but by filling them with persons whose posts were to be abolished since approximately 3%-4% of the staff left the service each year due to death, retirement, resignation and other factors, a reduction of 15-20% would thus be achieved over a five year period without real problems.
Annual sums of $120,000 for renewals were included in the estimate of operating expenditures. At one time, the railways maintained a renewals fund but in 1930, the contributions were discontinued and in 1947, the proceeds realized from the investment of the fund were absorbed in the general revenue of the colony. The reinstating of such a fund for renewals was recommended especially for those items of more limited life. The sum suggested represented an annual contribution of 3% of the total capital investment of $4 million for rolling stock and workshop. The total cost to put this into operating condition would have cost $4,378,000.
The fare and rate structure of the railways for passenger and goods traffic was reasonable for existing operating conditions. However, the introduction of new equipment, especially uniformed containers as recommended and a larger proportion of bogie rolling stock of higher capacity would have brought a need for a thorough study and revision of the tariff structure. A decision to retain the railways on a permanent basis would have made it even more important to undertake the study promptly. In particular, the problem of “less than wagon load” consignments should have been studied, as this would have had considerable influence on the proportion of high capacity bogie wagons to low capacity four-wheel wagons which were to be provided in the railway investment programme.
The roads did not have the capacity to handle the additional traffic with daily and seasonal peaks that the railways carried. In recognition of this fact, it was suggested that the railway alignments be used for new roads. There were both technical and economic objections to this. In the first place, the railway embankments were not more than seven to eight feet wide. One hundred years railway traffic had packed them solid. To be used for roads, the embankments would have to be widened and it would take many years before they became evenly settled. During those years, maintenance would be both difficult and costly. Moreover, nearly 300 bridges and culverts would have had to be widened to carry the full width of the road and all steel spans would have to be replaced. The total cost would be prohibitive. Finally, to build the roads, the railroads would have to be closed down even if the conversion was planned in stages. During the process of building, there would be no satisfactory means of coastal transport.
The total cost of roads to replace the railway system was estimated to amount to $11,670,000. Of this sum, however, approximately 6,990,000 would have been spent even if the railways were retained for improvement of the existing roads-$5,690,OOO on the East Coast road (including the cost of future deviations). This left a total of $4,680,000 ($3,360,000 for the East Coast) as the additional construction cost to replace the railways. In addition to construction costs, maintenance was considered. The additional cost for increased maintenance of the larger road surface was estimated at 1¾ percent of the construction cost. This would mean an annual cost for maintenance of the East Coast road of $58,000 a year or a total of $81,100 per year.
Further, the cost of the equipment needed for adequate road transport in the event the railways were scrapped was calculated on the assumption that most of the goods traffic now carried by the railways were taken over by the steamer services and by private, industrial and commercial firms using their own vehicles, leaving only a small portion to be handled by private road haulers. A number of Lorries were needed to be imported but since private enterprise supplied the capital, the cost was small. This item was omitted from the cost calculation. The situation was different with regards to passenger traffic. A well organized passenger road transport system was essential if the railways were to cease operations. There was little private experience in the colony with passenger transport. It would come on line within the five-year transition period, but meanwhile the road services would probably have to be operated at least initially by the Transport and Harbour Department. Passenger traffic on the East Coast line during the second half of 1952 totalled 14.5 million miles, or an estimated 29 million for a 12 months period. With normal development, it was estimated that this figure would rise to 33.4 million in 1958. The number of buses necessary to carry equivalent traffic was roughly estimated. The East Coast bus schedules operated by private owners covered an annual mileage of 33,300 miles per bus, and the local bus service in Georgetown, with 80% of the buses in service, showed an annual mileage per bus in service of 24,000. On this basis, the East Coast schedules would average 26,600 miles per year per bus. A fully occupied bus during all of its trips could therefore carry traffic of 26,600 X 40 = 1,064,000 passenger miles. However, not all buses would be full, and no bus would be full over the whole distance of its run. In practice only from one-half to two-thirds of capacity would be used. Using the higher ratio each bus would be expected to carry 700,000 passenger miles. On this rather optimistic basis, 48 buses would be required to replace the East Coast line.
After 1958, even if the railways were abandoned, there would remain an annual cost to the government of up to $72,000 for the railway perpetual stock. Based on the factors presented, the mission recommended that railways be retained, and that the government undertake a programme for their rehabilitation and modernization, as a part of the recommended five-year development program. The transport problem of most immediate urgency that faced the government was to decide on the future of the railway system. The government particularly requested the mission to consider whether the Railway, in view of its short haul and heavy operating losses, should be abandoned in favour of road transport. After a study of the complex factors involved, the mission concluded that the railway should be retained as essential to the colony’s economy, but to enable the railway to provide efficient service, its equipment and operations should be overhauled and modernized. The mission recommendations were based on the fact that the extra capital cost of a construction program for roads would be adequate to carry the railway’s present and prospective traffic that would have amounted to at least $4.6 million more than the cost of rehabilitating the railway.
During this period an efficient railway service was not provided even though diesel-powered locomotives were imported on January 2nd 1955 and thereafter. Although they were goods trains, they were used as short passenger trains if required, but they were not sufficiently fast for general passenger trains services, but the services were still poor. Many village representatives during the village conferences, asked Governor Alfred Savage to encourage the fixing of the railways. There were complaints of the windows falling off, and in some cases, there were no windows. Engineers were sent to Britain for training, whilst there were some visiting engineers who came to survey and make recommendations. Even though there were improvements in the arrival and departure times of the trains, these improvements were seen as naught because by 1965 some officials had characterized it as inefficient and wasteful of government-funds. There were tremendous losses from the railway being incurred.
Even though there were many feasibility studies done on the railway and the suggestions by some that the railways should remain opened, they were eventually closed. In addition, the country could not afford both the rail and road along the coast and they were thus sacrificed for roads.
