Note 15 — Chapter XVIII
Reading edition
"It has been estimated that an average of 50,000 persons were, in 1869, daily brought into Boston and carried from it, on three hundred and eighty-five trains, while the South Eastern railway of London received and despatched in 1870, on an average, six hundred and fifty trains a day, between 6 A.M. and 12 P.M. carrying from 35,000 to 40,000 persons, and this too without the occurrence of a single train accident during the year. On one single exceptional day eleven hundred and eleven trains, carrying 145,000 persons, are said to have entered and left this station in the space of eighteen hours."—Third Annual Report, [1872] of Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, p. 141.
The passenger movement over the roads terminating in Boston was probably as heavy on June 17, 1875, as during any twenty-four hours in their history. It was returned at 280,000 persons carried in 641 trains. About twice the passenger movement of the "exceptional day" referred to, carried in something more than half the number of trains, entering and leaving eight stations instead of one.