TWO-STOREY TRAINS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17607, 9 November 1922, Page 5

TWO-STOREY TRAINS.

With an enormous population, rapidly growing larger, and a business area I growing perpendicularly, although it cannot grow horizontally—owing to the river on both sides—Mew York is faced with the tremendous problem of how to get an ever-increasing mass of workers in and out of the city each day. . jjleans of access, owing to the situation of Mew York, are far more difficult than in the case of-London. From all directions the city must be approached across the water by bridge or tunnel, and the limit of passengers under present conditions has already been reached. Tho crowding on. London s underground railway, bad as it is, is nothing compared with New York. How is the difficulty to bo solved? The problem has set the cleverest engineering brains of America to work, and an ingenious proposal has been made winch wouid have the effect of doubling the capacity of the underground railway service. It is to run double-decked trains. The coaches would be very like double-decked tram-car.-", and to enable passengers to board them there would bo two platforms at the stations one above the other, people _ entering the upper and lower decks simultaneously. The schemo is said to present 110 engineering difficulties, and a plan has been worked out foT) enlarging the subways and tunnels without suspending the present train service. The type of coach proposed, though carrving a hundred per cent, more passengers, would not be more than 2J per cent, heavier, and the cost of hauling these larger cars would be very little more than of the present service. Mr S. Norgrove : of Otaki, showed a Levin "Chronicle'' reporter an inter-; esting exhibit in the shape of a relio of the days when envelopes and postage stamps were unknown. It is in the form of a letter written in, England m 1844, and addressed to Mr Norgrove's father, "3lr W. Norgrove, Port Nicholson, Town "Wellington, New Zealand." The missive was simply folded and fastened with a seal. It bears imprinted stamps showing that it was received for delivery at Colchester, England, on December 7th, 1844, that eightpenco was paid for carriage, that it reached London on December 9th, and Wellington five months later, on May 16th, 1845. There a. further fee of eightpence ni collected on delivery-.