Road Competition in Germany.

Road competition continues to worry almost all the railway systems of Europe, and indeed of the whole world. In Britain, and elsewhere on the Continent, many of the railways have come to working arrangements with important firms operating road services, wherein financial interest is acquired by the railways. In Germany, arrangements of this kind were concluded some time ago, and, for a while, appeared to work well. Now, however, the German railways are finding this policy of joint interest an impracticable one, and they have therefore abandoned it. Full liberty of action is now sought for them to operate road services of their own for both passengers and freight, and big developments along these lines are likely.

The total number of motor vehicles in service on the German roads at July 1, 1928, was 933,312, an increase of 29 per cent over the 1927 figure. The position of the German railways in regard to road competition is rendered increasingly difficult for an enormous number of road motors are operated by the Post Office in competition with the railways. These motors total something like 1,500, and in a single year they carry some 50,000,000 passengers. The popular conception of the German railways being backed up by the Government in every branch of their activities thus rudely falls to the ground. The German railways are now run on essentially business lines, and have to encounter severe competition on every hand.