THE RAILWAY WORLD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 56, 3 February 1934, Page 3

THE RAILWAY WORLD

GERMAN EFFICIENCY. The German railways are making a bold bid to wrest the “blue riband” of railway speed from other nations and in the matter of current acceleration of services few other long-dis-tance train services could show so striking a performance. Two years ago the fastest non-stop train on the Berlin-Hamburg run, a distance of 178.1 miles, occupied 179 minutes; now six expresses between Berlin and Hamburg have been so accelerated as to make the journey in precisely 179 minutes,., inclusive of from two to four intermediate stops. Of these the quickest, of course, is the famous Flying Hamburger, which through the present winter is maintaining its 77.4 miles per hour schedule —the fastest in the world —by covering the distance in 138 minutes. The non-stop steam service lias now been accelerated to a journey time of 154 minutes and the start-to-stop average speed is thus raised to 69.4 miles per hour, which is, incidentally, beaten only by the Cheltenham Fiver of the Great Western Railway of England plying between London*and Swindon, a distance of' 77.3 miles, representing an average speed of 71.4 miles per hour. The German trains, however, have restrictions in the matter of reduced speeds over this route; half-way between Berlin and Hamburg, through the City of Wittenberge, a speed reduction to 37 miles per hour is enforced, as well as a restriction to 50 m.p.h. until the Berlin suburbs are cleared and to 68 m.p.h. over the final 17 miles from Friedrichsruh into Hamburg.

Despite its having been running for some considerable time, the Flying Hamburger still creates considerable interest in Germany. Every day it is seen off and observed during its run by numbers of persons of whom a correspondent was one during' a recent journey by a steam train from Berlin to Hamburg. The correspondent goeson to state that from a seat in the last coach, which, like all main-line corridor coaches in Germany, was fitted with large end windows, an excellent view was obtained. At the point where the expresses passed one another, a mile and a half of straight track could be seen, and the Flying Hamburger shot past and was gone in a flash. The speed was probably over 90 m.p.h., which must be maintained for long stretches in order to observe the overall booked average of 77.4 m.p.h. This very fast inter-city service has proved highly popular and the train has carried an average of 56 passengers daily. Passengers may leave Berlin at 8 a.m., have 5 hours in Hamburg, 178 miles away, and be back again in Berlin by 5.35 p.m. (S. Fahey, N.Z.R.)