CONCRETE PROPOSALS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16866, 1 February 1929, Page 8

CONCRETE PROPOSALS

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL DISCUSSION BY COMMONERS (British Official Wireless.) Roc. 2 p.m. RUGBY, dan. til. Many members of Parliament attended a private meeting at. the House of Commons last night, at which Baron Emile I) ’Erlanger, chairman of the Channel Tunnel Co., answered questions. lie estimated the cost of building the tunnel at £30,000,000, half of which would he provided by I lie French and halt' by the British. Tfibre would lie three I.uline Is, one for drainage, which would cost £5,000,000, and twin tunnels for frnflie costing £25,000,000. lie was confident that the money could he found without Covornment assistance. There would be one up line, and one down line. The diameterof the drainage tunnel would he 12ft., and the big tunnels 20ft., with a 7ft. gauge. Construction was estimated to take 21 years for the drainage funnel, and about four years for the twin tunnels. The distance would be 24 miles.

Baron D ’Erlanger said that if it were estimated that annually 4,000,000 passengers were carried through the tunnel, paying the tariff now charged for the Channel crossing, a gross .income of £8,200,000 would result. It ought to be possible to run the tunnel on an annual expenditure of £1,00.0,000, and there would be at least £BOO,000 paid annually in freight receipts. Thus there would be a net income of £8,000,000 a year, a 10 per cent, return on a capital of £30,000,00(1. Sir William Bull, an ardent supporter of the scheme, said it was proposed that there should he an English company, a French company, and possibly a third holding company in connection with the League of .Nations.

THE LATEST SCHEME COST OF £190,000,000 Many schemes for tunnelling the channel have been put forward. The latest, based upon post-war costs and charges, is detailed in a hook issued in Loudon Inst month by Mr. William Collar;!. The plan contemplates the construction of a hroadgauge electric railway, with a terminus at Westminster, and another at the Rue St. Lazare, at a cost of £190,000,000. The route has been mapped out to pass through Farningham, Maidstone, Ashford, and. Monks Horton (gear Hytho), where it would enter the LL vnile approach tunnel to the Channel tunnel proper. The Channel tunnel vyould be from a point between Dover and Folkestone to a point south of Calais. In Franco the route would pass through Boulogne, Amiens, and Montrcui 11-sur Breche, and the whole length of the railway would he 2.53 miles.

The scheme. provides for 22 trains each way daily, with a 45 minutes’ service, and an average of 608 passengers. Allowing for extra summer traffic, an accommodation of 10,700,,800 seats woud he provided for ;m estimated annual traffic of 8,333,333 passengers. In addition, the scheme contemplates 12 similar trains being run each way between London and Boulogne daily, providing 5,836,800 seats annually. With gross receipts at over £35,000,000, a figure which .is based on an average of £2 for a single fare from London to Paris, it is estimated that the working would yield an annual profit of over £12,000,000, enabling payment of 7 per cent, on ordinary stock.

Nothing is mentioned by the author about: objections that might ho raised from the point of view ofjtlie Statesubsidised Imperial Airways, whose cross-Channel service would he affected by a railway service that could compete with it in the matter of t inio.