Changes in Central Europe.

Great changes continue to be made to the railway map of Europe. The Austrian Federal Railways have ceased to exist as a separate system, and have been swallowed up in the German National Railways, many elaborate reorganisation schemes having been brought into play. The latest development is the replacement on the Austrian lines of the sleeping and refreshment cars of the International Sleeping Car Company by those of the Mitropa undertaking. The International Company is a Belgian concern, while the Mitropa is a German firm. In Czechoslovakia severe pruning of the railway system has followed the handing over of territory to Germany, Hungary and Poland. Prague continues the head-quarters of the Czech lines, but the inflated railway system which arose out of the Treaty of Versailles is now no more. All these changes in Central Europe naturally affect long-distance train services as well as local, and at the present time the various railway organisations are busy working out new routes and new regulations concerning the running of many of the regular cross-European expresses.

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