State Railways of Central Europe.

Germany, Austria, and the other central European lands, are making real progress in railway development these days, and the success which is attending the recently favoured arrangement of operating most of the central European railway systems as State concerns, run on essentially commercial lines, is most marked. In Austria the Federal Railways were placed upon a commercial basis with a view to putting them on a sound financial footing. The result has been most striking. Under the old arrangement in 1923 there was a deficit on railway operation of about £1,792,684. In 1927 the financial results showed a surplus of about £4,500 in favour of the railway management, so marked were the improved working methods introduced in the new regime. Austria, by the way, is fast developing a nation-wide electric railway system second to none in Europe. Since 1920 some 390 miles of track have been electrified, one of the most notable achievements being the conversion to electric traction of the mountainous Innsbruck-Arlberg route in the Austrian Tyrol. The Austrian Government Railways are some 3,650 miles in length, and in view of the strategical position occupied by Austria as the centre of Europe, the railways of the land play a big part in international transport across the Continent.

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“Where shining waters move among the trees.”