RAILWAYS TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 22

RAILWAYS TODAY

Mil. STERLING'S. TOUR EUROPEAN SYSTEMS (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, October 12. During an extended Continental tour, Mr. H. H. Sterling took note of railway facilities in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark,, and in Switzerland he con-fined-his inquiries chiefly to the matters . concerning tourist traffic conditions. A feature of special interest was at the Centenary Exhibition of the German, railway system, at Nuremberg. The visit to this was a real education. Dr. Dort Muller, Director-General of Railways in Germany, received Mr. Sterling very courteously and showed him a great deal. All details of railways and their equipment were studied during the tour, including physical comfort for passengers, matters of locomotive construction, and every form of modern development in connection with steam and electric propulsion, as well as in-ternal-combusypn engine construction. In Sweden, Mr. Sterling obtained a great amount of information on a factor' of considerable importance, namely* the public reaction to electrification. Denmark has a very progressive administrator who has made an intensive study of the various methods of catering for passenger traffic on railways. Observations on train-ferries, were possible in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. While in Switzerland, Mr. Sterling was particularly, interested in matters connected with the' tourist side, including hotels, their service and their management. On the complete round of the countries visited he kept in the forefront the subject of travel supply in relation to travel demand in all its many phases (best type of seating and sleeping accommodation, air conditioning, heating, and so on). He sums up his impressions briefly by saying that everything in the Continental railway world is undoubtedly in as great a state of flux as it was ten years ago. Indeed, take a bird's-eye view of the position and the conditions are like looking through a kaleidoscope. Very useful contact was made with a large number of executive officers in the railway world, and the exchange of views was certainly valuable. Mr. Sterling anticipates going again to Germany and to Sweden, accompanied by Mr. J. Sawers, who, by the way, has been making useful investigations in England.