Country Cartage Service, Southern Railway of England.

Business continues to improve on the Home railways, and taking advantage of Government financial aid, the four group systems have embarked upon one of the biggest betterment plans ever attempted.

The works scheme now in hand is estimated to take about five years to complete. It embraces new railway construction; track widenings; station improvements; electrification; signalling betterments; and the building of new locomotives and passenger carriages. On our biggest railway—the London, Midland & Scottish—electrification is being put in hand of important lines in the Liverpool area; the Euston terminus in London is being entirely reconstructed; colourlight signalling is being introduced at many points on the London-Crewe-Carlisle main-line; and 369 new steam locomotives and 270 new passenger carriages are being built.

Electrification of the busy tracks between Manchester and Sheffield is being tackled by the London & North Eastern authorities; running loops are being constructed at ten places between Grantham and Doncaster, on the East Coast route to Scotland; and station improvements are being undertaken at York and Doncaster. For the important fish trade of Hull and Grimsby, there is being provided additional accommodation; while 43 new steam locomotives and many new passenger carriages are to be built. On th Great Western line, a new alternative route is being constructed betwen Exeter and Newton Abbot, in Devonshire, to handle the rapidly-increasing tourist business to and from the West Country. North Road passenger station, at Plymouth, and other important stations are to be enlarged; while numerous marshalling yards and goods stations are to be remodelled. By the Southern Railway large sums of money are to be spent on extending the already very elaborate electrified area lying to the south and south-west of London, one of the principal routes involved being that between London and Portsmouth.