The reconstruction of a continent

If there is one development that makes the period after the Second World War different from prior epochs, it would certainly be the enormous increase in wealth during the 1947-1973 period in many European countries. Combined with an increase in leisure time this provided one of the necessary conditions for an upsurge in tourism. Part of this tourism moved by bus, but the booming economy of the Trente Glorieuses especially turned the car into a mass commodity in several countries. Car ownership changed from a privilege into a normality during this period, and the annual family holiday by car became the epitome of a modern, wealthy, twentieth century European. The increase in wealth also entailed an increase in trade and, consequently, freight traffic on the road increased many-fold in the post-war period. The unbridled growth of road transport vis-à-vis its competitors created huge financial problems for the railways from the mid-1950s onwards.

None of this was obvious in 1945. There seemed few reasons for optimism in the direct aftermath of the war. Rising geopolitical antagonism among the former Allies did certainly not give cause to it. The belligerents had been defeated, but the war had left deep psychological and physical scars through the loss of human life and the devastation of buildings and infrastructure. The latter was particularly problematic as demand for transport was enormous. Large numbers of displaced people erred around the continent, wanting to return to the places they once called home. Food and other goods had to be transported, but, on top of the inadequate infrastructure, transport equipment was short in supply.

The first priority was to reconstruct what had been destroyed. In the post-war situation any transport was most welcome due to scarcities, and road transport did not fail to play its part in restoring the European transport system to normality, not in the least place due to the level of destruction in the railroad sector.