10,000 MILES OF LINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20870, 9 November 1929, Page 21

10,000 MILES OF LINES.

TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY. The longest railroad in the world and the only one that provides continuous means of rail communication between the countries of Western Europe and the Far East is the Trans-Siberian railroad) opened in 1001, and now operated by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, according to an article in a recent issue of the New York Central Lines Magazines. It is by far the quickest and cheapest way of travelling from. European countries to the Orient. The trip from Paris to either Shanghai or Peking, going via the Trans-Siberian Railroad, is much less than by way of North America or Suez. The Trans-Siberian proper extends Sverdlovsk, in the Ural region, to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, a distance of 7186 kilometres, or more than 10,000 miles, making if the longest railroad in the world. The rail distance from Negoreloye, on the Polish border, to Vladivostok is 10,157 kilometres. From Negoreloye to Sverdlovsk the lines are operated by the Moscow-White Rus-sian-Baltic Railroad, the Northern and the Perm railroads. Travellers can now board trains at Paris, Calais, or Ostend, and, without changing, ride either to Riga in Latvia or to Negoreloye on the Soviet-Polish border. At these two joints a change is made to the Soviet railroads which carry the passengers either to Vladivostok or Manchuria at an average speed of from 50 to 60 kilometres per hour. There are daily trains to Moscow, and six times weekly the mail train makes the Moseow-Vladivostok journey. All the trains make connection with those arriving from Western and Central Europe. First and second classes on Soviet trains correspond to the same classes on Continental trains. Third class is not upholstered, but mattresses and bedding can be rented for a few roubles. Direct communication between Europe and the Far East was re-established as a result of the international railway conference held in 1925 at Moscow, and 1926 at Berlin. The railroads of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Esthonia, China, Japan, and Russia participated in these conferences. It is now possible to buy a ticket aud have baggage checked from the principal cities of the Far East to practically all of the principal cities of Europe, according to the article. Attempts are being made to encourage freight traffic between these two points. In order to facilitate such traffic the Soviet Government has established new regulations permitting all countries with which trade agreements have been concluded to ship merchandise in transit to other countries without special import licenses and without limitations as to quantity from most of the border points through the territory of the Soviets. Travellers are permitted to bring with them into Russia the personal effects required during the Journey, the quantity not to exceed that specified iu the regulations. Baggage of a commercial character is admitted only on the authorisation of the Soviet trading authorities in the country of origin. The passport and visa regulations of the countries through which the journey is made must, of course, be observed-