112 MILES IN AN HOUR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 170, 26 June 1900, Page 3

112 MILES IN AN HOUR.

A omuhttee of the Houie of Commons, pruidti *T«r Wj Sir Joh» Keasaway, lately hai Mora it a Sill prewtei by the Manchester and Li*erf»el Electric Express Railway Company, antheming the construction of a high speed railway on th« teoao-rail principle, to connect the two tewns. Mr. Balfour Brown, Q. 0., for the promoters, said the railway would be between 34 and 35 miles in length, The opposition of the three competing railways and two or three local authorities would not stop a scheme which proposed to run carriages at the rate cf 112 miles an hour. Mr. Behr, the inventor of the onerail system, which it is proposed to employ in this case, was called and examined by Mr. MacMorran, Q.C. Mr. Behr said that in addition to giving 15 years of his life to the study of this system, he and bis friends bad spent during that period .£200,000 upon experiments, and in an endeavour to perfect it. Tbe result of his investigations had been that he had come to the conclusion that the maximum speed had already been reached on the present system of railway traction, and it would be folly to run trains under existing conditions, with safety to the public, at a higher speed thin at present. The Lord Mayor of Manchester was called. He expressed the opinion that if it were possible te travel between the two cities in 20 minutes, instead of the present 45 minutes, there would be a considerable increase in tbe number of persons travelling.