A TRANS-HARBOUR SUBWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20174, 7 February 1929, Page 12

A TRANS-HARBOUR SUBWAY.

Sir, —To the best of my knowledge tha advocates and the opponents of the proposed bridge scheme have overlooked an alternative means of transport -vhich, in my opinion, merits close consideration. I refer to a tunnel, preferably beginning on the new city railway area and connecting with the North Shore at Stanley Point or Bayswater. London, New York and possibly Paris and other large cities appear to favour tunnels under their waterways, and we now have the ambitious channel tunnel scheme "in theair." As a layman I offer no opinion with respect to the relative cost of' a bridge ot a subway—that is a . matter for the engineers—but the latter method has the merit of not interfering with harbour navigation. Modern engineers seem disinclined to clutter up the landscape with bridges and viaducts, no matter how artistically designed, these structures may be. The direct underground route between closely-populated areas is obviously the speediest and cheapest transit system in the loag run. To meet present and future needs such a tunnel should provide for a two-way motor road, duplicate tramlines, a railway line and room for high-tension electric cables, telegraph circuits, gas mains, etc. The spoil excavated from the tunnel could be used to reclaim Hobson Bay, or, better, ptill,- that unlovely area, Shoal Bay, thereby adding enormously to the wealth of an already rich Harbour Board, and the Town Planning and Civic Leagues would rejoice. Young Citizes.