THE RAILWAY OF THE FUTURE

Evening Star, Issue 11512, 1 April 1901, Page 7

THE RAILWAY OF THE FUTURE

V'v A recent, cabls message/ infonhed ns' that the German Eritperbr MA allow experiments ;in the application of electricity to railways to be'mmde oh thb hliiitafy line between Berlin and Voss'en. Thus has a definite start been', made in the movement' which is hound to ttwdllingiin the ‘twentieth i century as' the^application?of steam revolutionised it in th'e.nihetehhthivl-A-hundred yeats. ago, pone were far in advance oftheir template the timeWheti stage coaches’ Should be a thing of the'past, and thafiateSm loco- ' motion would be a common everyday thing throughout the'world. It- can hardly be said that the position is exactly similar today. Most of us have seen for ourselves electricity used in the. tramway. services, and this once successfully accomplished it; was merely a.matter of time'foritrto be: applied also to - rail ways. It nsed;to be thought that the average human system would be injuriously affected by the speed of steam'locomotion as well as by such inconveniences as jolting and shaking.', The'se" fears, however, have been falsified by,the result,- and probably.the increased, speed-which.tne introduc- ’ tibn qf dectricity will imply wfilbb' likewise mhociibuk' At any rate, ■ persons who use the electric trams do not* find- the- rapidity of motion other than e^hillarating/. It is calculated that,.'for some time-; at least, electricity-will be confined to passenger traffic only, whilst goods will continne.,to be carried by steam trains. .There: is .not so much occasion for the speedy transit of .'goods as there is for people in, these "busy. days to be able to move more quickly, from-place to place. A striking illustration of thq change which the application of electricity tq travelling will make is furnished ,by the Berlin coirespondent of the Londpn "• * Standard.’ Magellan, the first circumhavigatbr, ;he points out, took three years ,to travel round the world, and Sir Frtock Briakh, fifty years biter, took two years and ten ana a-half months. On the completion of the TransSiberian Railway a than who starts 1 on the trip from London will find himself back there again in. fifty days. In the following table, which is said to be based on the best authorities, the various stages of the journey are shown:—

33,327 ;- 50 ,' The present route via. Suez and Colombo consists of 39,330 kilometres, and takes sixty-seven days. Thus the traveller who is pressed for time will find that it will save him seventeen days to use the new route, and if he happens to be.a bad sailor he "will observe with pleasure that,, whilst fifty-four days in the present journey are passed on sea, only eighteen will be thus occupied by the new route. ; The use-of electricity instead of steam will of course,still further reduce the time of the journey ; but it may safely be said that 4he introduction of electricity along this great liiie is some time off yet. '

For ii start,-"the experiment on-the Berlin-. Vossen line, if it prove successful, will be confined to comparatively short, distances. Existing,.railway, lines are not calculated to bear the strain which the increased speed of steam train's Would place upon rand they will have to be. st-rengwiened even, for' electric trains before anything like the ideal: railway-; pf ■ the future can be .considered attainable. But when this has. once been done it is expected that the we"ar and-tear will-be minimised with the abolition of the heavy locomotives which strain the lines so much. The average speed attained-by ; , steam, expresses consistently with.safety is : put down by experts at from sixty tq, eighty kilometres per hour. ..To travel .by steam at a much greater rate would meajii ,the v.eniplpym«nt of'heavier engines, with/ntclderital strain on the.linos, and at.gf?at expense, accompanied with, much danger;.. The mina-j ger ■ of-,-the-^-Berliner-,AUgemchte. Elactrici-i informed his' company propose to run .two : electric expresses, -each carrying ijfty passengers," on the;Berlin-Vossen line at .a speed of from 200 to 250 kilometres i per .hour, If these hopes are in any by the event,' we shall soon see electric expresses take the place of fast steam trains in eyery part of the world. The continent of Europe will be connected with-a network of electric expresses, and we may live-to seethe day when a man stepping into.his. carriage sit-? Paris will reach St. Petersburg fifteen hours later. The United States, we may besure, ; will not' be behind the-timesi "and for short-dis-tances at any rate Australia ■ would in due season, as population Hncreasedj adopt the

MH'TOS? t 4Mt£«WallPlofjpr& and will find withonfc'sutpruft that ifffi sroalU* evek I than they S 4 M.^Md,''' V -

Route by Land and Sea; Number ■ of! -Days. -London to Tcfaeljabinsk ... 5.853 . •• " Tcheljabinsk to Vladivostock 7,204 .. 18 " Vladivostock to Awomori i.. •77o . .. H Awomori to Yokohama ...' 716 . ... 1 Break of Journey. Yokohama to Victoria and Vancouver 7,778 . 1 .. 10i Vanct u n r to Bt ODkville(On- ■ tario) ... ... ,4,508 V . .. ,4 Brookville to New York .... 579 ) New York to Liverpool. ... 6,6081 •• 6i ' Liverpool to Loudon..: 311/ •