Now, in 1917, twenty years later, I was to become
still more intimately acquainted with it, and, in an unexpected but
practical way, concerned in its domestic affairs.
Though the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, which worked the
Burtonport line, was a railway of only 14.5 miles in extent, it was
entrusted with the working of no less than 85 other miles, 50 of which
consisted of the Burtonport railway--a condition of things quite unique:
the tail wagging the dog!
The total capital expenditure on the whole of the 100 miles of line
worked by the Lough Swilly Company amounted to 727,000 pounds. Of this
sum about 500,000 pounds, or 68 per cent., was money provided out of
Government funds. The ordinary stock of the Lough Swilly Company was the
exceedingly small sum of 50,330 pounds, upon which for twenty years a
dividend of 7 per cent. had been regularly paid.
The Burtonport line was opened for traffic in 1903. From the first, its
management, to say the least, was faulty and illiberal. So early in its
history as 1905 an inquiry into its working was found to be necessary,
and I was asked by the Board of Works to undertake the inquiry.
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