A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
VARIOUS scraps of information--or allegation—regarding the state of the German railways, e g., as to the with- drawal of a number of express trains, has crept into the English papers. The suggestion is that owing to the superior claims of the rearmament drive renewals and repairs on the railways have been so long deferred that permanent way, locomotives and rolling-stock have deteriorated to an alarm- ing degree. There is pretty certainly some truth in this; the question is how much. The journal Reichsbahn gives the following instructive statistics regarding accidents in four successive years: 1935- 1936. 1937. 1938.
1,781 1,868 2,113 2,413 The figures apply to Germany without Austria or Sude- tendeutschland. Another report mentions the obsolescence of much of the rolling-stock owing to the effect that a diminution of the allocation of steel has had on new con- struction, and the reduction of services resulting therefrom ; and a commercial journal, Der Deutsche V olkswirt, discuss- ing last month the capacity of the railways to cope with an emergency, said plainly that " the experiences of recent weeks make it clear that before the point is reached at which abnormal demands are made on the railways they must be put into a condition to meet such demands." Whether this represents more, or less, than the truth, or neither, is hard to determine.
Previous page
