Перевести текст future of railways until recently many people were of the opinion that the railways had reached the limit of their improvement. yet the japanese and french railways were the first to prove that they were wrong. in these countries trains are normally run at speeds of 240-270 km/hr, while in the frg the experimental high speed train ice reached a record speed of 406 km/hr. all this caused a dramatic change in favour of the railways. it was for the first time that passengers are preferring the train to the plane. this experience is now made use of in many countries. the drive for effective ways of developing railways is going on in an ever growing number of countries. many railway lines in russia handle 100 and even more trains a day. in russia on an average the annual tonnage of lines of the network is 26 million gross tons per kilometer of tracks. the through-put capacity of modern large classification yards in canada, the frg and in a number of other countries is as high as 8000-10000 wagons per day. in the usa running 20000 ton trains has become normal practice. the railway networks of asia and african countries are expanding. automating and mechanizing of basic operations have become standard practice on most of the railways. in the eighties and nineties of the last century many countries of europe and america celebrated the 150th anniversary of their railways. among railway experts the historical aspects of railways have arouse great interest. the railways have passed through the period of accelerated expansion of the railway networks, that was a period when 20000 km of lines were built every year. over the last 30 years the mileage of railway networks even shrank. super steam locomotives rated at 5000 h.p. and developing a pressure of 15 to 16 bars were replaced by electric and diesel electric locomotives. the carrying capacity of wagons increased constantly and the mass of rails went up steadily as well. automatic brakes and the automatic coupling have become an indispensable part of rolling stock designs. modern passenger coaches have become more comfortable and spacious. what will come next? what are the railways in the xxist century? forecasts are always of a relative nature. yet, it will not run any risk of committing a mistake when saying that the railways still have a long life to live. what is needed is to keep pace with time, that is the railways have to make use of all most modern scientific and technical achievements.
