STILL VAST FIELDS FOR RAILWAYS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 2 January 1929, Page 8

STILL VAST FIELDS FOR RAILWAYS.

GREATEST INSTRUMENTS FOR TRANSPORTATION. Railways all the world over, in spite of competition, arc still the greatest instruments for the movement of passengers and goods on laud (states Sir Brodie. H. Henderson in “Engineer lug”). '

Except in Great Britain, practically all the railways of the world arc laid with flat-bottom rails spiked (o timber sleepers, or fastened by various devices to traverse ‘steel sleepers. The flat-bottom rail has proved quite able to do any work demanded of it; for instance, it is in general use in the United States'-of America, where high speeds and heavy axle-loads are common.

Tim re is great, variat ion between differerit countries as regards the mileage in proportion to area and population. , For instance, in Belgium, a -very thickly-populated country, there is one mile of railway to every 1.88 square mile of area, and to every 1252. of the population; in Great Britain and Ireland, including the Irish Free State, the figures arc one mile of railway to every 4.80 square miles of area and every 1897 ■ persona. The figures for- Australia, China and various other countries, show what a small railway mileage there is compared with the area or population. It is not suggested that figures -such as these give any indication of the' requisite railway mileage, but they show that there is still a vast field for railway construction in various parts of the world.