The Road-Rail Complex.

Appreciable progress is being made by the Home railways in the direction of meeting the competition of the highway carriers. Powers now are being petitioned for to operate fleets of road motors for the conveyance of both passengers and freight, and permission of Parliament is also being sought to enable the railways to enter into working agreements with municipal and private undertakings operating road services. If these powers are granted there will be effected a vast programme of co-ordination between the railways and the outside road carrying undertakings. The present year promises to see each of the big group railways engaging in road transport on a scale never hitherto dreamt of, and there is little doubt that in co-ordination between rail and road lies a most promising avenue of progress.

In almost all European lands co-ordination of rail and road transport is being established by degrees. In Germany the railways are collaborating closely with the road carriers, and in Switzerland and Hungary the Government railways have established subsidiary undertakings to carry on the work of transport by road. In Germany it is estimated that motor competition involves the railways in an annual loss of approximately 250 million marks, and there, as in Britain, the subject of rail and road co-ordination is receiving the most serious attention of the carriers and the Government.

The new German railway system, which is run on essentially business lines, is rapidly climbing to the forefront among the world's railways. In a recent report, Monsieur Levevre, Commissioner for the German Railway Company, states that the receipts for the financial year 1927 are entirely satisfactory and considerably exceed the figures for the two preceding years. For the period January to October, 1927, receipts showed an increase over 1926 of 416 million marks. Reparation payments are being duly met, and altogether the German railway authorities are to be congratulated upon the efficient manner in which the whole business of the undertaking is now being conducted.