Big Italian Electrification Scheme.

The recent opening of the throughout electrified main-line of the Southern Railway of England, between London and Brighton, is not apparently to be allowed to pass unchallenged. Several of the continental railway systems have big electrification plans in prospect, the most noteworthy of these being in Italy and Sweden.

In Italy proposals have been approved for the conversion from steam to electric operation, of about 2,500 miles of railway track, at a total cost of something like £45,000,000. The scheme is divided into three sections, each section embracing four years’ work. The principal routes concerned are those connecting Italy with Switzerland and Austria, and the north-south main-line between Milan and Reggio, on the Straits of Messina, as well as the Turin-Trieste main-line.