Electrification Work in France.

Because of the abundance of natural water-power resources, main-line electrification is making much more rapid progress in France than in Britain. The Paris-Orleans and Midi Companies are leaders in this field. Some four years ago these two undertakings were merged to form a single system, and electrification over the two railways has proceeded under a common direction.

To-day, there are roughly 1,565 miles of electrified track on the Paris-Orleans-Midi group, equivalent to 3,433 miles of single track. The routes electrified present diverse features, including long level stretches, and mountain tracks in the Pyrenees. Extensions of electrification now being put in hand are mainly confined to heavy-traffic routes, where coal consumption is high. New track equipments on the Paris-Orleans-Midi electric lines are of the overhead 1,500 volt direct-current type. When conversion works at present in hand are completed this year, it will become possible to operate electric locomotives, without break, at the head of passenger trains from Paris to the Spanish frontier station of Irun, a distance of 509 miles.