FUTURE SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 75, 28 March 1924, Page 4

FUTURE SYDNEY.

CHANGED TO FIT BRIDGE.

HARBOUR ALTERED

ENGINEER'S FORECAST

(fc'roin Our Own Correspondent.!

syDXBi", March 20-

Mr J J C. Bradlield. Chief Government' Engineer for the Narth Shore Urid»e and City Transit, in a.-i addict before the Royal Colonial Inetiime tin. week illustrated Uiu extraOYdmar} changes .Sydney and »t» environs will undergo, consequent upon the consiiuction o» the bridge and city railway, and thecarrvmg «ut of suburban electrification proposals.

\t the outset. l>e referred to the height of the bridge to be. "Our .solatioii Is our great drawback We can and mast reach the hub of ti. e Empire. London, from Sydney witbii. three> weeks if we are to progress as we should And such vessel, as the Aquitania and Berengaria will trade to Sydney and make ?his wiU.ii! tLc next twenty years. To provide for the leyiat haus or the future, which will trade to Sydney the headway under the br.dge was fixed at 170 feet."

The first steam railway to be electrified will bo tte railway from Sydney to Waterfall and at no distant date the Sutherland to Cronulla tramway Will also be remodelled into an electric railway. The electrificaton of the Sydney to Waterfall railway is already 111 hand. Otl-er electrification proposals include the railways from Sydney to Bankstown, Sydney to Parramatta, Sydney to Hornby via StrathUeld, and via the and in fact the whole ot the suburban area from CaiupbeUtown, Penrith, Windsor, and the Hawkestmry

RiverIllustrating the time to bo saved dj the electric trains across the bridge he pointed out that while to-day it takes 84 minutes to reach Sydney from > T arrabcen. this period Mill be refiuced to o4 minutes. Sydney to Spit Junction will fall from 38 minutes to 16 minutes; Sydney to Bay Road, 30 minutes to 12 minutes, and Hornsby and all stations beyond will be seven miles nearer the G.P,O, via the bridge, than via the Central railway station. All the suburban railway stations will provide for goods traffic as well as for passengers and the distribution of coal, meat and agricultural produce will bo expedited and considerably cheapened. When the break of gauge question is settled the Trans-Continental express will be able to start at Roekharnpton on its 3SBO miles run to Fremantlc, and ] v ill pass through Sydney via the SydI ney harbour bridge. The same carriages will run right through, steam and electric locomotives only being changed at various prearranged' stopping places, Sydney becoming, as it were, a wayside stopping p}ace. ' _ The bridge, he said, has been designed to carry this traffic, and according to his calculations electric trains will be in operation on the city railway as far as St James' station next year, while the Illwarra railway will be electrified to Waterfall.

A bird's-eye view of the harbour, changed to accommodate the bridge, showed Darling harbour reclaimed as far as Bathuret Street, Pryroont bridge removed, and a wide avenue from Balmain along the foreshores of the harboirr to Bathurst Street.