Rail and Steamship Services.

St. Pancras station handles, among other important business, passenger traffic to and from Tilbury Docks, one of the leading shipping points on the River Thames. Because of navigation difficulties associated with fogs in the Thames page 20 estuary, and other operating obstacles, the L.M. & S. Railway have decided to abandon their daily steamship service between Tilbury and Dunkirk, France. This service formed an important Anglo-Continental travel link, and through carriages were operated between Tilbury and the most important English centres. Opened in 1927, the Tilbury-Dunkirk route to the Continent was developed by the L.M. & S. Railway in association with the Northern Railway of France.

Under the new arrangement, the Southern Railway have taken over the L.M. & S. interests in the service. Instead of Tilbury being employed as the English terminal, the port of Folkestone will be substituted. The Southern Railway thus secures control of all the Continental sailings operated from the Channel Ports. Compared with the Tilbury route, the Folkestone crossing to Dunkirk offers a shorter sea passage—47 miles as against 98 miles. It involves, however, on the English side, a rail journey of 73 miles, as compared with 26 miles via Tilbury. Three steamships are employed—“Alsacien,” “Lorrain,” and “Flammand,” and these run under the French flag. The vessels accommodate respectively, 1,230, 1,242 and 950 passengers. The rail services out of Dunkirk connect with the old battle-front in Northern France and Flanders, and cater for a heavy tourist traffic. On the freight side, important business is handled in connection with the coal and iron industries of Alsace-Lorrain and the Saar Valley.