NEW ROUTE TO PETROGRAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1627, 21 October 1916, Page 4

NEW ROUTE TO PETROGRAD.

The following facts regarding the Murman Railway, from Petrograd to Russia’s new open port in the Northern .Seas, has been communicated to a Norwegian newspaper by Mr I. Lied, the director of a large Russo-Norwegian shipping and trailing concern, who has means of knowing the conditions of the railway. The Murman Railway, which reallv may be said to commence at Petrograd, is divided into live sections; —1. Petrograd-Zwanka, 114 versts (Id miles), old railway. 2. Zwanka-Petrosavodsk, 25(1 versts (17(1 miles), new railway, completed. 3. Petrosavodsk-Kern, 498 versts (215 miles), new railway, completed. 4. Keru-Kandalakseha, 322 versts (215 miles), new, in course of const ruction. o. KandalaksehaMurman Port, 2(15 versts (117 miles), new railway, completed. Altogether 1,3(15 versts (bill miles). Section 1 is a part of the Stale north railway system to the Ural. Section 2 is the new private, so-cal-led, Olonelskaja Railway, built with a view to the Murman trallic. This section is entirely finished, as are also sections 3 and 5. Section 4is the only portion of the railway not yet completed, but there is every reason to believe that it will be ready about the end of the present year, when the whole line, Petro-grad-.Murman, consequently should be opened to trallic. Murman Port, the terminus at Kola, lies 1(1 versts to the north of the small town of Kola, and, thanks (o the Gulf Stream, is never (dosed by ice. So far there have been constructed wooden quays for three large steamers, and a crane of 25 tons capacity has been installed. The inner port is spacious and well protected, and more than 40 good-sized boats have been anchored there at the same time. Besides, Kola Bay itself makes an excellent harbour, from 1,200 to 3,(100 yards broad, with a depth of wafer 70IT. Thu greatest difference between high and low water is 13ft., with comparatively little current. At low water the depth at the quay is 30ft. The building of the Murman Railway is a feat second only to that of the Siberian Railway, more especially in view of the rapidity with which the work has been pushed ahead under unfavourable circumstances. The length of the railway is not so tremendous, being 834 miles new line, but it passes through districts offering very serious and varied dillicullies. To begin with, there were no roads along which men and materials could be conveyed to (he places where they were wanted, everything had to la* transported over long distance's at a heavy cost. In some places the track ran through granite deposits, and in others through heavily-timbered primaeval forests. More dillicult than either were the great distances of boggy country which had to be crossed. Over hundreds of miles the railway had to la* built on piles.