NEWEST IN WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 5

NEWEST IN WORLD.

TOKYO SUBWAY. OPERATION- SIXC'K NOVEMBER. TOKYO. Two new subways have been put into operation in this country in recent months. One is in Tokyo and the other in Osaka, an industrial centre. The Tokyo subway undoubtedly ithe newest in the world. Cars began running on November IT\ over part ot the system. The entire line will lie completed soon. This service is called the hijrh speed subway. It diffei> from the main subway line, which has been in operation in Tokyo for several years, in that it is quieter and faster. One of the main objection* to the older line is. like most subways the world over, it is noisy. When a train of several cars speeds into a station at 21) or 2~> miles an hour the uproar is like that of a bad thunderstorm. Within the cars also there is so much noise that it is dillicult to carry on a conversation without raising the voice considerably. T Kyo's new liijrh speed subway company has eliminated much of this noise by laying the rails on ties which in turn are laid on a six inch bed of gravel instead of directly on the concrete tloor. This deadens the noise to a surprising degree. "Another innovation of the new line is that the stations are decorated in different colours. This, it is claimed, aids passengers tremendously inasmuch as subways, unlike surface and overhead lines, run underground where there are no identifying landmarks. An innovation of the subway in Osaka is the installation of escalators in the main stations. This costly improvement, however, was not greeted the expected praise. People in a hurry, particularly during rush hours, complain that it is too slow. It is acutally faster to walk than to use escalators, it is claimed, and because these devices take s<l much space, there is not enough room for wide stairways. All of Japan's subways are of the open-cut variety, as distinct from the tunnel type. Open-cut subways are laid directly beneath the streets, only a few feet separating the top of the underground line and the street. The advantage of this system, it is claimed, is that passengers do not have to travel so far in descending to and ascending from the subway statin platforms.