THE 100 MILES AN HOUR RAILWAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9304, 18 November 1901, Page 4

THE 100 MILES AN HOUR RAILWAY.

♦ ■■• The contemplated electric express service between Berlin and Hamburg continues to attract much attention, and deservedly so (says Engineering). Experts hold that it will have to be carried above or below existing railways, streets, reads, and canals. This, however, is easier with an electric railway, as the gradients give less trouble here than with ii locomotive railway. As the trains will have to run m rapid succession, three sets of rails will be necessary, so that there can always be two lines available, whilst tne third is being repaired. The calculated costs comprise £900,000 for expropriation of land, about £1,500,000 for earthwork, £550,000 for under and £1,600,000 for upper works, £75,000 for 1 stations and shops, £900,000 for electric installations, £300,000 for motors, 1 £200,000 for preliminary work, etc., £900,000 for various expenses, making a total of some £7,000,000. ; The traffic is, at least m the beginning, : intended to commence at 6 a.m. from both ends, and to be continued with trains i up to 9 o'clock. Then there is to be a three hours' break, and the traffic will be resumed at 12 o'clock, m order to stop for : another three hours at 3 o'clock. At 6 o'clock it is to be resumed, and continued till midnight. Each cor is intended to carry 60 persons, which with one car gives 360 passenger* per hour, or with lo traffic hours 5760 passengers m each direction, making a daily total of 11,530 passengers with one car service, and ten 1 minutes between the trains. With eight minutes' interval, the figure reaches about 14,400, and with only five minutes' interval about 23,000 passengers. With three-car trains the aggregate would consequently amount of 69,000 piissengers m 16 hours. The advocates of the new mono-rail high-speed railway are trying to' refer its opponents to the parallel case, as they consider it, of the opposition made to the first railways on the ground that it was dangerous and unhealthy for people to be hurried along at the rate of 20 miles an hour. But (asks the Builder) are the cases parallel? Objectors to the 20 miles an houf railway were foolish even from the point of view of that day, for they might have reflected that people could ride a. galloping horse at that speed without suffering from the effects. But the human body is, after all, a delicate machine, and there must be some limit to the speed of transport which it -will endure without ill effect. We do not know how near we have come to the limit, but we know there must be a limit. Then there is also the balance of risks and advantages to be considered. However ingeniously the mono-rail railway may be planned and however carefully constructed, no human means can guard absolutely against the chances of accident from some unforeseen cause, and the consequences of an accident at the rate of speed proposed are fearful to contemplate. Is there- any advantage m covering the ground at that speed which balances the risk? That is the point for future mono-rail travellers t6 consider.