FRENCH RAILWAYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1938, Page 7

FRENCH RAILWAYS

FACTS AND STATISTICS French railways give direct employment to close on a million people. Work on transport of passengers and goods occupies a staff of 500,000, and there are more than 400,000 engaged on other duties. With their families, it is estimated that railway employees represent three million consumers. The total length of French railways is 26,310 miles, with 8,500 stations, 19,600 locomotives, 511,000 trucks of all kinds, and 34,000 passenger trucks. France with 550 railcars of 14 different types stands at the head of motorisation of railways. Of these 550 railcars, 120 are run on petrol and 430 on heavy oil.

Every Frenchman travels by railway every year an average of 363 miles. From 1927 an 1936 there was only one fatal accident for every 500 million passengers.

The busiest railway station in France is that well known to English visitors travelling via Newhaven-Dieppe, the St Lazare station, Paris. During the rush hours, especially between six and seven in the evening, passengers leave the station at the rate of 1000 a minute. Among the fastest trains running in France are the Paris-Havre evpress, 141.6 miles in 1 hour 58 minutes; Paris-Lille, 160.3 miles in 2 hours 25 minutes; Paris-Lyons, 318 miles, in 4 hours 39 minutes; Paris-Bordeaux, 365.3 miles, in 5 hours 44 minutes; and ParisMarseilles, 536.2 miles, in 9 hours. By the latest type of trains, the distance between Paris and Nice, 676 miles, is covered in 11 hours 57 minutes.

The old familiar names, P.L.M. (for few people ever stopped to say the full title of Paris-Lyons and Mediterranean Railway) Etat, Nord, Est, P.0.-Midi, are rapidly disappearing, and all French railways are now grouped in one concern, the Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais, or French National Railways. A single management, commanding the best administrative and engineering skill of the country, is preparing to follow out a programme which shall maintain French railways in the very high position they held 'oh the Continent, which is second to none.