Trade continues to improve in Britain, and the railways are reaping the benefit of the all-round business betterment. Transportation is still confronted with many difficulties peculiar to the times, but there has never been a period since the boom of the postwar years when the railway situation as a whole was so happy as at present. With a continuance of the trade revival. 1934 should prove a red-letter year in transportation's varied story.

Statistics are apt to be a trifle wearying, but the recently issued preliminary statement of annual Home railway returns for 1933, prepared by the Ministry of Transport, certainly calls for passing mention. In 1933 the net revenue of the British lines was £29,600,000, as compared with £27,194,000 in 1932 On the expenditure side, the capital account at £1,174,200,000 showed an increase over 1932 of £3,194,000. Expenditure on railway working was £123,100,000 in 1933, as against £125,228,000 in 1932. The statistics of operation show an increase in engine mileage in 1933 of 2,776,837, mainly accounted for by the addition of 4,401,984 coaching train-miles. Coaching train-miles per train-hour were 14.85, as compared with the 1932 figure of 14.71; and per engine hour 11.58, as against 11.45 in 1932. On the freight side, freight train-miles per train-hour were 9.49 in 1933, and 9.58 in 1932. Freight train-miles per engine hour were 3.69 in 1933, and 3.70 in 1932.

Passenger journeys on the Home railways in 1933 increased by 16,587,594. The introduction in 1933 of cheap “summer tickets” accounted for the conveyance of 19,503,005 additional third-c'ass passengers. In 1933 some 251,102,000 tons of goods and minerals were handled, as against 249,611,864 tons in 1932.