But the success achieved has been limited. Even though daily wagon loadings have risen by 340 per cent. they are still very low compared with Western industrial countries. The turnover of wagons is well below the average for developed railway systems. The density of Russian railway traffic too often means congestion and intolerable delays. The truth is that the policy of intensive development in place of new building has proved too limited in scope. More locomotives are needed: between 1913 and 1922 the number fell from 20,000 to 6,000; it is only 23.000 now; though the trate has been multiplied, six times since 1913. New lines, and above all new subsidiary lines, are needed if Russia's railway traffic is to be adequate (even for her own domestic requirements) and free-moving. At present it is crowded, restricted and inflexible, The other success has been in the air, and this, too, has very obvious limitations. The carriage of raw materials and industrial products by sir cannot be done ju bulk. Goods transport by air is greater in volume in Russia then in eny other country; 55000 tons (including mai were carried in 1938, compared with 196 tons in 1929. The route mileage has risen from 11,397 miles to 72,500 miles in ten yests, and Russia has the longest network of air poutes im the world. Long distances and the great difficulties encountered by surface transport have made this growth an obvious means of pioneer transport development—as in Northern Canada.
But, quantitatively, Russia's transport problems can in no way be solved in the air.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.