EUROPE’S TRANSPORT

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1942, Page 6

EUROPE’S TRANSPORT

PLIGHT OF THE RAILWAYS

Transport has always been one of the major weaknesses of Nazi Germany and the approach of Winter when German armies are striving to extricate themselves from Russia adds immeasurably to the difficulties. While so far the German railways have managed to cope with the huge demands by severe restrictions on travel and by using rolling stock stolen from other countries, the wear and tear on tracks and rolling stock have been tremendous, says the “Christian Science Monitor.” Accidents and delays have become the accepted order of things. Before the war a huge railway programme was proposed which would have provided 6,000 new locomotives and 100,000 new trucks, but it was abandoned when war began. Instead, occupied countries were systematically looted —the Dutch railways alone possessed 882 steam locomotives.

Owing to the petrol shortage, road traffic has had to be diverted so far as possible, and the British blockade has stopped all but the smallest coastwise shipping, so that additional burdens have been placed on the railways. Before the war 4,000,000 tons were loaded yearly at German ports, so that, allowing 10 tons per truck, it would take 8,000 trains of <5O trucks each to move the same amount of freight. Use of the railways is restricted, and on Europe’s most important lines only one fast train a day and one or two slow trains are allowed. They are so crowded that the division into classes is no longer feasible. To economise rolling stock loading and unloading have been speeded up, but railway mon are obliged to work through their rest days, and the result is fatigue, increased accidents, and carelessness. Moreover, Germany has a big problem in controlling the railways of occupied countries, where sabotage is rampant. The Fritz Todt organisation has been working feverishly to restore railways and canals before the Winter in oreparation for the tremendous task of supplying the armies in Russia. In the west, bridges and railways are constantly being blown up by the R.A.F., which has increased the violence of its attacks. Military supplies and munitions in the west have been carried successfully on the whole, at the expense of the civil population. Rolling stock and tracks are getting old, however, and French, Dutch, and Belgian railwaymen are not overzealous about keeping them up for the use of their oppressors.