The Railways and Safety.

Given sound track, rolling-stock and signalling equipment, high-speed running does not in any way lessen

Austrian 2-8-4 Locomotive utilised for hauling the “Orient Express.”

travel safety. The European railways have for long enjoyed singular freedom from serious mishaps, and at Home the recently published official report on railway accidents for 1933 typifies the safety of modern railway movement. During the year only six passengers and eleven employees were killed in train accidents, while passengers injured in train accidents numbered 619—many of these injuries being of a minor nature.

How different a picture is presented by road travel, where death and injury lurk around every bend, and where the casualty roll in a single week greatly exceeds that of the railways over a period of years! It is a fact that in one year road accidents in Britain are responsible for more deaths than have been recorded on the railways since the days of George Stephenson. New Zealand railwaymen are rightly proud of their splendid safety achievements. The fine results achieved through “Safety First” by their colleagues at Home will hearten them in their effort to prevent loss of life and limb.