MOSCOW’S SUBWAYS
PLANNED AS SHELTERS DESIGNER PUZZLED LONDON, Aug. 13. The Englishman who planned Moscow’s underground railway in 1932 was puzzled then by the attitude of the Russian engineers. He .could not understand why they wanted the passages and platforms so long. He envisaged the project merely as a most elaborate modern transport system. But all the Russian engineers working with him had air raid shelters in mind, though they gave him no hint of this. The designer was J. C. Martin, one of Britain’s foremost tunnel engineers, who is now planning deep tunnel shelters for London, similar to those in Moscow. “The Russians smilingly accepted my suggestions, but blue-pencilled those which did not coincide with their plans,” said Mr. Martin. "For instance, I made a commonsense suggestion that the distance from the platform to the tube exit should be as short as possible. For a reason I could not then understand, they insisted on building long, wide passage ways throughout the system.”
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20635, 15 August 1941, Page 6
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163MOSCOW’S SUBWAYS Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20635, 15 August 1941, Page 6
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