to do all in one's power to... – делать все, чтобы...

to be in wide use – широко использоваться nevertheless – все же

to run - управлять

Text 2

The Sverdlovsk Main Railway Line

In 2003 the Sverdlovsk Railway, one of the most lengthy railways in the Russian Federation, marked the 125th anniversary.

As it is known, the Russian railways were originated in the Urals. Naturally, for those times the more powerful transport than a horse-driven cart was required to suit the Demidovs' developing mining and metallurgical works. In 1834 the first railway engine was invented and a railway for transportation of ore was built by the Cherepanovs, the Tagil self-taught serfs. In 1836, the Peters- burg-to-Tsarskoye Selo railway was started to be built.

In 1851 the Petersburg-to-Moscow main railway line, considered for those times as the largest one, started to carry freights and passengers. This gave rise to the building of other railways which connected the country's centre with the outlying districts. The first Urals mining-and-metallurgical railway line (Perm- Chusovskaya-Kushva-Yekaterinburg) started its functioning in 1878. Since 1934 it is known as "The Sverdlovsk Railway".

The Sverdlovsk railway passes through three time zones and four soil-climatic zones. The region of 1791 thousand sq. km with the 11 mln population is serviced by the Sverdlovsk railway.

The full functioning main railway line length is over 7000 km. The main railway line has extended for a distance of about 15 thousand km from the West to the East, while to the North its steel lines cross the Polar Circle. The electrified railway lines extent constitutes 50,6 percent, that of the double-track railway lines, 34 percent of the length run. The traffic is automatically controlled over more than 70 percent of the railway length and the semiau-

54