NEW SUBWAYS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 1 December 1927, Page 7

NEW SUBWAYS

V FAST TRAINS UNDERGROUND AT CHICAGO. Chicago is to have a subway system unlike anything in the world. Mayor Thompson and President- Faherty, of the Board of Local Improvements, have worked out a plan that undoubtedly will meet with public approval. Instead of a dark, gas-iilied, murky bore, the Chicago subway will in reality be a lower street, with stores on both sides, brightly illuminated and open to a sufficient extent to assure good ventilation at- all times. There will be no vehicular traffic, and the walls separating the subway tracks from the sidewalks will be high enough to ensure protection for the pedestrians. This will enable the subway trains to travel at high speed. 'Phis plan removes the terror of fast trains rushing through a dark tunnel and affording opportunities for anarchists and other insane persons planting dynamite bombs, as recently was done in New York subways. The Chicago plan also does away ■.vich the terrific noise which is one of the banes of the New York boroughs. For the present, the lower street plan will "apply to the downtown streets only, an area of alwnit three miles north and south and a. mile east and west; but, eventually, the plan provides for the extension of the lower street idea into the residential districts. The particular value of this plan lies in the fact that women and children can visit the stores without the constant peril of being run down by automobiles, and this in itself will tend to relieve the congestion on upper streets. Business property will be greatly enhanced in value. Entrances to the subway are to be ornate affairs, with easy stairs and, in some cases, where the traffic is heavy, csalators will be employed. Work already has begun by the various utilities.