RAILWAYS AND RAIDS
SIR,—I claim no expert knowledge of the British or any other railway system, but I cannot feel that Mr. G. Boyd-Carpenter's letter on " Railways and Raids " in The Spectator of November 29th represents the last word on the subject. Official defenders of the railways are no doubt debarred by obvious considerations from speaking as freely as they would like to do about the disabilities under which the rail- way system is operated at a time like this, but it must be clear to anyone that difficulties of every kind are numerous. Time-bombs, for example, which cause the temporary closing of streets in London and other great cities, are not likely to be unknown on and near railway-tracks. It must frequently happen that a long-distance train has to be diverted or stopped owing to damage occurring to the track since it started. Military transport, of both personnel and material, is. as everyone knows, abnormally heavy and must inevitably affect seriously passenger-train schedules. In the last war there was a serious shortage of sleepers, rails and other necessities for the main- tenance of the permanent way ; it is hardly probable that the case is different now. As to the black-out regulations, it is likely enough that some of them are stupid, but is it not the case that some at least were imposed, not by the railways themselves, but by Government
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