Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1956-12-01

centenary on December l with a
commemorative ceremony in the
Stockholm Concert Hall in the
presence of King Gustaf Adolf
and with historic parade of 10Th
century locomotives and railway
cars. Among the many gifts pre-
scented to the State Railways on
the occasion was. free electric
power on the jubilee day granted
by the State Power Board, mod
els of locomotives built by Swe
dish industries and cash contrib
uted to the railway staff's schol-
arship fund.
The railroads celebrated the CEN
tennial under the auspices of the
State Railways, in Europe widely
known as 81. 1t was in 1856 that
the first stretches of track o r
both private and government own
ed lines were opened. In 1879 the
first private road was taken over
by the government, which had
built most of the principal lines,
and today about 90 per cent of
the railways are publicly owned
and operated The Swedish State
Railways are the largest business
enterprise in Scandinavia.
Aside from the predominantlv
public ownership and management,
the most significant feature of
the Swedish railroads is their ex-
tensive identification On a small
scale this work was begun as
early as 1895, and today Sweden
has the largest electrified net
work in the world covering about
1900 miles. The longest continu-
Gus electrified line in the world
runs from Trelleborg, in southern
most Sweden, to Narvik, in north
ern Norway not far from the
Swedish border, a distance of ap-
proximately 1870 miles. About 40
per cent of the Swedish railways
are now electrified, but since this
includes all lines with heavy traf-
fic, transportation is done by cleo
trio power up to 81 per cent of
the total volume. The electrified
ton so far completed has re-
suited in an annual saving of
about 100000 tons of coal, which
represents about Is per cent of
SWeden's imports of coal and coke.
$1,000 Persons Employed
The State Railwa employ
about $1,000 persons, or almost
every thirtieth Swede between the
ages of twenty and sixty. Wages
and salaries account for about
two-thirds of total annual costs.
They have increased considerably
during the last few years, and this
development, together with the
rapid expansion of motorism, nat
urally has made the railroad bust
ness less p r o i a b | e. However,
great efforts have been made to
modernize operations and stream
line the whole organization, and
today productivity, measured in
traffic units per employee, is about
35 per cent higher than before the
war. In Europe, the Swedish State
Railways, so far as productivity
is concerned, seem to be surpass-
ed only by the railroads in the
Netherlands an d Switzerland,
where the TT a f Fl C intensity is
three times greater than in Swed-
en-.
About "a per cent of the in
come of the State Railways is de-
rived from passenger traffic, So
per cent from freight traffic, and
three per cent from other sources.
Passenger traffic reached a peak
of 131 million trips in 1851, and
then competition from motor traf-
fic caused it to drop to Ill mill
hon in 1854. The decline, however,
now seems to have been halted
Sleeper traffic, on the other hand,
has increased steadily since the
war. Last year, sleeper passengers
numbered more than one million,
or better than twice the prewar
figure.