FASTER STILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 208, 2 September 1932, Page 7

FASTER STILL.

. BRITAIN'S TRAINS. 0 Plans for Accelerating Winter Services. SPEEDIEST IN THE WORLD. ) (British Official Wireless.) * ' RUGBY,' September 1. A further stage in the policy of , the British railway companies of ) accelerating the services will be 3 attained on September 12 when the t winter time-tables will come into ) operation. The speed of the Great Western Com--3 pany's Cheltenham flyer—already the ! fastest train in the world—is to be raised from 09.18 to 71.3 miles an hour. > This will be the first time in railway 1 history that a train will have been ; scheduled to run regularly at a speed of - 70 miles an hour or more. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, which holds two European records for high speeds over long distances, has five expresses timed at an average speed of 00 miles an hour or more, including one which travels at more than 04 miles an hour. For distances exceeding 150 miles on other lines the services are to be greatly accelerated. Extending the Tubes. •' Five new stations and four and a half ' miles of railway track are to be added

to the equipment of the underground railways within the next three weeks. The total number of stations then will be raised to 130 and the track mileage to 132 miles' including 40 miles of deep level tubes. Extensions of lines in other directions will be completed later in the year. Trains run on London's underground railways from 5.30 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. the following day at an average frequency of one every two and a half minutes. However, the latest statistics show that although 041,917,202 passengers travel underground every year the bus is the most popular/means of transport. Of every 490 journeys per head which were made in the past year by Londoners 230 were made in buses, 130 in trams, 78 in underground trains, 50 in suburban trains and two in coaches.