NORTH SEA TRAIN FERRIES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 10

NORTH SEA TRAIN FERRIES

A SWEDISH SCHEME

In a report on ‘‘Sea Communications between Sweden and England,” the Board of Administration of the Swedish State Hailways give their reasons in detail for recommending the Government to support the project for establishing a service of train ferries. They point out that the question of improved sea communications between the two countries has engaged the attention of the State Department and of the industrial, agricultural, and commercial community of Sweden for more than twenty years, and that the matter was raised again last year in connection with certain other projects. In the view of the board, frequent, fast, cheap, and direct sea communications, easily capable of development between England and Sweden, are of the utmost economic and cultural importance, and that the creation of such communications would not only materially strengthen the relations of the two countries, but also promote a wider and more varied development of the trade between them. Benefits of Ferry Service. A service of train ferries is recommended because a satisfactory one with ordinary steamships is not possible without considerable capital expenditure and annual loss. The plan provides for two or three train ferries, costing on a preliminary estimate £330,000 each, which would 'maintain a service between Gothenburg and with three trips in either direction weekly, each passage of 504 nautical miles occupying two ni"ht£_and a day, or about 30 J hours, at a speed of 16i knots per hour. Train ferries, in contrast with steamships, are . able, the board states, to satisfy without difficulty the demands of passenger and good traffic alike. It is often said that the only real advantage of the ferry is that goods can be transported without reloading and that consequently this advantage diminishes with the length of passages, since the saving in loading and unloading is then of less importance. ■ This argument, though right up to a point, by no means exhausts the whole problem. Of great importance also are the advantages to goods traffic accruing from such services, such as the saving of time, diminished risk of damage, and economies in packing. But that is not all. The crux of the whole I question is that ferries are ready to depart as soon as the wagons have been run ashore and others have been taken on board, except insofar as coaling and cleaning up is required. The train-ferry services already in existence between Tralleborg and Sassnitz ■ and between Harwich and Zebrugge are cited as strong evidence of the ability of such services to promote the exchange of goods and to create traffic which would not otherwise have developed; and stress is laid on the value of facilities for forwarding foodstuffs to their destinations through refrigerating vans. Among the commodities named as likely to be especially benefited by the train-ferry are butter, eggs, bacon, and other foodstuffs, textiles, paper, pulp, various kinds of iron and steel, machinery, and probably timber —particularly planed and manufactured. ! The board, however, consider it essential to the realisation of such a service that there should be some form of British participation and that the most suitable form of such co-operation would seem to be a joint service between the two interested railway authorities m ownership of the ferries.