5 JANUARY 1929, Page 7

The British railway companies, which lost £10,000,000 in 1928, in

spite of a cut of 21- per cent. in wages and salaries and a considerable reduction in the price of coal, - are making a new by- for prosperity. They intend to :introduce into -Parliament -as soon as possible- (according to the Daily Telegraph) a Bill enabling them to undertake aerial transport.' Perhaps .we shall be able before long to huy a ticket at Paddington which will take us by.train to Fishguard and thence by air to Dublin in half the time that the journey takes to-day. Journeys to outlying islands, such as the Shetlands, might be made in little more than twelve hours. This follows on the experiments of Atlantic liners, which have sent their mails in advance by aeroplanes catapulted from their decks. The Southern Railway Company is also experimenting in the use of steel sleepers apparently with success. They are used in Germany, and in all tropical countries where wooden sleepers would be destroyed by the white ants.