Rail-Operated Road Transport

(From Our London Correspondent.)

Railway-operated road transport is making big strides these days in Europe. In England, the Great Western Railway has just placed a big order for additional road motors amounting to nearly £90,000, the majority of the vehicles being for goods department working. The Great Western claims to be a pioneer of rail-road development, for its first road motor services were instituted as long; ago as 1904. Since the Great War, and especially during the past few years, it has continued to expand its services.

The country lorry services, operating over an area of from twelve to fifteen miles from railheads, have brought into immediate touch industrial centres and outlying villages, with the result that traffic of every description now passes freely and speedily between country districts and big manufacturing towns. These services have also relieved farmers of the necessity of carting their own traffic to or from railway stations, and enabled them to concentrate their energies upon the farm itself.