The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN RAILWAYS FOR 1864.

In our previous notice on this subject we stated
that the great railway struggle of this session would
be between the rival plans of Mr. Hawkshaw and
Mr. Fowler, the latter gentleman having adopted
the Lords' suggestions of last year and now bring-
ing forward two gigantic, but most comprehensive,
schemes for carrying them out. The chief sugges-
tions made by the Lords' Committee were, that
what is called the metropolitan railway district
should be considerably extended, that no main lines
should be allowed to come further into the metro-
polis, and that an inner and an outer circle of rail-
way should be formed by an independent company
which should intercept all the great main lines above
their present metropolitan termini, and so divert
their traffic round rather than through London.;The
outer circle it was recommended should be used for
this interception of goods and passenger traffic; the
inner for the purely local traffic of the metropolis
itself. It was further recommended that at one
part of their circumference the inner and outer
circles should join at a level, so as to virtually make
the two lines one for the purposes of communication.
This report, from which Mr. Hawkshaw dissented,
Mr. Fowler has accepted, and, with a large staff of
surveyors, has passed the recess in carefully set-
ting out a plan in which all the recommendations
of their lordships are carried out ; and the two
projects are really most comprehensive. The cost,
however, is likely to be a formidable drawback on
the commercial success of the plans, and most
especially when we consider what it is estimated
at, compared with what the outlay is almost certain
to be. The inner circle is merely an extension
of the Metropolitan, or underground, Railway,
which now commences at Paddington and
ends at Blackfriare, but which is being ex-
tended to Finsbury-circus. This line it is now
proposed to extend from Paddington through and
beneath Bayswater, under Notting-hill, and round
and at some distance outside the western extremity
of Kensington-gardens. Thence it sweeps round
Brompton, passing behind the houses facing the
Exhibition in Cromwell-road, and continues along
the south side of Chester-square to the Victoria
station, and across Westminster to Westminster-
bridge. From Westminster it is hoped to take it
along the Thames Embankment to Blackfriars, and
thence under the proposed new street into Cannon-
street, where it has a defiant station full in front of
Mr. Ilawkshaw's. From Cannon-street it winds
under King William-street to the Fenchurch sta-
tion, and thence round by Haydon-square, across
Liverpool-street, beneath Finsbury-square, where it
at lest joins the end of the Metropolitan underground
line which is now being made. This constitutes the
inner circle, though, as its course has been as far as
possible selected to avoid valuable property, it as
very far indeed from being a circle, but is an irre-
gular oblong about five miles long by two broad.
Its total length is 12f, miles, of which four miles are
already built in the Underground Railway, leaving
81 to be construoted, and the estimate for this 81
miles is £3,000,000, or in round numbers about
£300,000 per mile. This estimate appears little
short of astounding when we consider the nature of
the property the line passes through, as compared
with the property taken by the Underground Rail-
way, which has cost more than 1300,000 per mile.
At what price is it expected the contracts will
be let for taking the tunnel up Cannon-street
and under King William-street to Fenchurch
station, when the contractor is liable for all
damage done to the surrounding buildings by
cracks and settlements? We know how in the
very widest thoroughfare'.in London—that down
the New-road—the houses on either side were
affected while the tunnel was being made for the
subterranean line. Is it expected that a similar tun-
eel can be made through such a sell as that under
Cannon-street, which is less than a quarter the
width of the New-road, without cracking the lofty
pils-s of warehouses on either side far and near ?
Thee much per foot will a contractor expect for
driviv a tunnel under King William-street to Fen-
church when he has to pay for the damage done all
around,hikat ? Tao idea of such an inner circle is, no
doubt, an excellent one if it were practicable with
reasonable outlay, and if it did not include within
iza schemes the total disfigurement of the Thames
Embankment ; but to say that it can be effected for
£3,000,000 is to set the engineering world staring
with amazement. The stations on this line are pro-
posed to be all open to the air, and these will be the
only outward signs of the existence of the line,
which will be entirely subterranean. There are to
be stations in Liverpool-street, Fenchurch, Cannon-
street, E erl-street,Waterloo-bridge, at Westminster
(where there aro two, one for the public, and one to
be used only by members of the Lords or Commons)
one at Victoria, one in Pimlico, one at Brompton,
one at Kensington, one at Notting-hill, and one at
Bayswater, and the cost of all these, including those
in the city, is supposed to be covered by the esti-
mate of £3,000,000.
The outer circle is as comprehensive in idea and as
expensive in fact as the inner, but though likely,
perhaps, to be more useful to the public than the
inner line, it is unfortunately certain to be more
vehemently opposed, from the mass of vested inte-
rests in the shape of established lines on the profits
of which it apparently trenches. This outer circle
is, in railway parlance, intended to " tap" the great
lines leading to London at short distances outside
their metropolitan termini, and draught off their
passengers to the various districts round London
to which they may be destined, in the suburbs,
or, by the junction of the inner and outer circles,
to the heart of the city itself. Whether the great
main lines are likely to approve this scheme or not
we cannot say, though on the face of it, as inter-
cepting their passengers may mean intercepting
part of their profits, it isjust possible that they may
not be willing to join in it. These considerations,
however, are, in a manner, beside the question with
the public, wko will only look on the plan in the
light in which it is offered to them—as an accom-
modation for themselves. It is under this aspect
that we have to regard it—to see how far what it
proffers is capable of execution. The outer circle,
then, commences at the South-Western near Clap-
ham, crosses the river at Battersea, passes through
Brompton, and makes its junction near the Exhi-
bition with the inner circle, along which it runs
side by side to Notting-hill, From this point it
diverges across to the Great Western, which it " taps"
at about a mile from Paddington, thence on to the
London and North-Western Railway, which it joins,
oc " taps" rather, at Kilburn, and so on to the
Hampstead and City Junction, where it has a per-
fect fen of branches. It continues round by South-
end to Kentish-town (crossing the Hampstead and
City Junction again), and sa on to Holloway, where
at the Seven Sisters Station it "taps" the Great
Northern, and goes to Stamford-hill, making its
junction with the Great Eastern at Upper Clapton.
From this point it turns south through Lower Clap-
ten, Homerton, Hackney, Old Ford, Bow,
Bromley,
Limehouse, crossing the Thames between the West
India and Commercial Docks on a high level bridge,
and thence on to Deptford, where, near New-cross,
it again! spreads out like a fan to form four junc-
tions with a mass of southern lines. From these
junctions the remainder of the circle is completed
by the London and Brighton line, which passes
through Peckham and Camberwell, and joins with
the London, Chatham, and Dover, which continues
on through Clapham to the South-Western. This is
the outer circle. Its diameter is 7 miles, its length
24 miles, and its junctions and bunches 8 miles more
—32 miles in all. Its estimated cost is £,000,000,
and it is carried either on arches or embankments
almost entirely at a high level above the streets. Of
what kind this line will be may be at once seen
from the fact that in its 21 miles' length it has no
lees than 8 miles of branches and junctions. It has,
in fact, upwards of 30 junctions with great main
lines. Every railway traffic manager knows how
easy it is to riespatch trains quickly; how difficult
it is even to approximate to time when the arrange-
ments depends on the trains that have to arrive. If
this outer circle with its mass of junctions can be
managed with less than six lines of rail it will do
what no other company has ever yet achieved ; and
we da not hesitate to say that with the time lost in
catching arrival and departure trains a traveller
could reach Brighton in the same, if not in less
time, than would be occupied in journeying over

this 24 miles of junctions. The Lords' Committee
have recommended this plan in order to prevent the
entry of main lines into the metropolis ; yet by Act
of Parliament every line is entitled to right of way
over a line which joins it on payment of certain tolls
fixed by the Act, and in virtue of this law the Great
Northern and London and North-Western might,
in fact, bring their terminus into one or two points
of the inner circle which would pay them best.
With such a provision we certainly fail to see how
the great main lines are kept out of the metropolis
by this inner and outer circle, the only claim
of which to be made at all is that they bring
them all in. On the question, too, of estimate,
this outer circle appears even more strange than
the inner, in the low figures at which its cost
is placed. Take the high level bridge at Lime-
house, for instance. It is certainly not an average
specimen of the estimates; on the contrary, to
say fairly, it is the worst example of under-estima-
ting to be found in the outer circle. Still, when it
is a work of the most stupendous magnitude, and
one likely, it carried out, to attract the attention of
engineers throughout the world, the cost of it, as at
present estimated, may be justly referred to by any
who look to the outlay which is likely to be neces-
sary to complete the plans. This bridge, as we have
said, crosses the Thames at Limehouse, and at that
part of the river it mast be carried at such a height
as, like the Britannia-bridge,will admit of the pas-
sage under it of vessels of every size. It is to be
laid for four lines of rail, is to be 140 ft. above high
water, is to be built in a single span of 700 ft., and
to be built in place, and the estimate is £380,000 !
To the general reader it is only necessary to say a
few words to explain why engineers regard a bridge
of this kind for such a sum as impossible. The Bri-
tannia-bridge cost very nearly £1,000,000, and its
greatest span is not over 600 ft., and it was built on
the shore, and raised to its present level-100ft.
above the water—in single spans. The high-level
bridge of Mr. Fowler is to be an imitation of Mr.
Brunel's great bridge at Saltash, but, instead of
spans similar to that structure, Mr. Fowler pro-
poses of 700 feet,—that is to say, very nearly the
length of the water-way of Westminster-bridge,
without any support except from its two ends. The
bridge is, in fact, to be one girder, 130 feet deep by
700 feet long, and to be built in its place,—that is
to say, from side to side, until it meets in the mid-
dle, and all for £380,000. If Mr, Fowler seriously
proposes to keep within his estimate he has under-
taken a far more difficult task than the bridge itself.