Catering on the German Railway.

Five times round the earth at the equator or about 125,000 miles, is the average daily mileage covered by the dining and sleeping cars of the Mitropa Company, of Berlin, the efficient undertaking responsible for train catering on the German railways. In the west, the Mitropa dining and sleeping cars run as far as Amsterdam, Flushing and Hook of Holland, serving the traffic to and from Britain. In the south they operate to Zurich, Interlaken, Lucerne, and Lugano, establishing connections between Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Mitropa cars likewise go to Vienna, and to the Spa centres of Czechoslovakia, while the company also operates the sleepers and diners on the Scandinavian railways. More than 650 cars are owned by the undertaking, which has its own chain of car repair shops.

Good catering is an immense aid in securing railway passenger business, and while there is much to be said in favour of a railway undertaking its own dining car and refreshment room services, the German lines are certainly fortunate in having placed their catering interests in the hands of so efficient an organisation.