On Monday the new electrical services on the Southern Railway,
which ran tentatively last Sunday, had their first real test, and somewhat numerous delays and mis- adventures took place. It is said that these were regarded by the company as inevitable in any large reorganization. We must congratulate the Southern Railway on its enterprise in building up what is now the largest elec- trical service in the world. By taking electrical trains down to Guildford and Dorking it has made the service something more than merely suburban. Lon- doners can now get into the real country by the clean, rapid and altogether preferable medium of electricity. We trust that the new services will be successful and, if they are, will be used as a model by other parts of our railway system. There are many enthusiasts who hold that the entire railway systems of the country, when the necessary " super " power stations have been built, will be ripe for electrification. We do not profess to know whether this is really so, but we imagine that great extensions will be made. That indeed will be a happy day from the point of view of cleanliness and lack of smoke, but a gloomy one for our dwindling coal industry if it is then still struggling on lines unchanged from those of to-day.
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