Railway electrification has now definitely emerged from the experimental stage. In all corners of the world there is gradually being effected the conversion of steam-operated tracks to electricity; and while steam movement will probably for many years continue on numerous main-lines, electric traction for suburban and inter-urban operation, is undoubtedly the haulage method of the future.

Certain types of railway naturally lend themselves better to electrification than others, and so it is on lines handling a relatively dense passenger traffic that electric traction is making greatest progress. Excluding electrifications such as those of Switzerland, where the numerous mountain grades and tunnel sections prevailing, and the shortage of native coal supplies, have been the deciding factors in favour of electrical conversion, probably the world's outstanding example of electrification's utility is found on the Southern Railway of England.

The Southern actually operates the world's largest electrified suburban railway system. This embraces 293 miles of line, equivalent to 800 track miles. The electrified lines cover almost all the railway routes lying immediately to the south and south-west of Britain's metropolis, and include some of the most favoured residential territory within reasonable daily reach of the city. The cost of the Southern electrification is put at £11,800,000. Some £6,250,000 of this amount has been charged to capital: the balance consists of money which would, in any event, have had to be spent on improvement works and the like. To-day, 20,651,000 electric train miles have replaced the former 8,152,820 steam train miles, and under electrification the public are gaining tremendously, both by increased speed and increased train service.

On the authority of Sir Herbert Walker, the General Manager of the Southern Railway, it is stated that the working costs of electric and steam operation approximate 1s. 3d. and 2s. 6d. per mile respectively, so that taking into account the increased train miles under electricity there is an increase in working costs under electricity of £206,140 per annum. Annual revenues under steam and electric operation work out at £3,475,933 and £4,792,602 respectively. Deducting from the increase of £1,316,669 under electricity, the figure of £206,140, there is shewn a net gain of £1,110,529. Corelating this increase in net revenue with the £6,250,000 charged to capital, the return represents no less than 17 3/4 per cent.

Among European main-line electrifications, a most interesting achievement is that of the Austrian State Railways. At present about 524 miles of the Austrian State Railways are operated electrically, or roughly sixteen per cent. of the total railway mileage of the country. In the page 23 near future further big electrification works are to be effected. Among the new routes to be electrified, are the Vienna-Salzburg Railway; the Vienna-Graz line; the Tauern Railway, in Western Austria; and the main-line linking Vienna with Hungary.

The Vienna-Salzburg electrification will be 195 miles in extent. This line forms a part of the through route from Vienna to the Swiss frontier. The Vienna-Graz line is 130 miles in length, while from Vienna to the Hungarian boundary is a distance of approximately fifty miles.

Standardised electric locomotives of the 2–8–2 type are to be employed for fast passenger haulage, with 0–4–4–0 locomotives for goods train haulage. On the completion of these Austrian electrifications, it will be possible, as a consequence of conversion works undertaken in the neighbouring lands of Switzerland and Hungary, to travel by electric train right across Central Europe.