STATE RAILWAYS ABROAD
Sta,—I know nothing of the " petty politics " which you imply has marred the development of the Swiss Railways, but I must write to defend what is surely the most efficient, the cleanest, and the most comfortable railway system in Western Europe. I travelled thousands of miles on the Swiss Railways in 1943 and 1944 It is the only railway system I know where you can be certain of catching a connection when there is only three minutes between trains. Trains in Switzerland run to the second, not to the minute. They are all electric, so that you can wear a white shirt for a four-hour journey and it will still be a white shirt at the end. The latest rolling-stock, all aluminium, especially the brilliantly designed new dining-cars, is far in advance of anything of its kind in this country. The stations in Switzerland are not only good to look at, they are good to have a bath in, to shave in, to,telephone from, and above all to eat in. Not without reason are the station restaurants at Zurich and Geneva among the most frequented restaurants for diners-out, and if you have not time to leave the train and go to the restaurant, a specially designed trolley is wheeled to the door of your carriage, and from it you can have coffee, hot soup, hot sausages, fresh ham sandwiches, or baskets of delicious fruits wrapped in cellophane.
It is surely a false argument to say that for efficiency the railways should be run for private profit. Anyone who has anything to do with organising railways does it for fun, because he likes railways, anyone who likes railways wants them to be efficient, and anyone who really wants to make British railways efficient wants them nationalised.—
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