The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

RAILWAYS IN LONDON.

The railway scheme for 1864 must now soon be put into
the shape of Parliamentary notices, and as the decisions of
next session will probably settle the general plan of metro-
politan railway communication, it is desirable that the
public should be fully in possession of what passed before
the Lords' Committee of last session appointed to consider
the whole subject. There are three objects to be kept in
view, One is the substitution to a great extent of the rail-
way for the omnibus and cab in the internal traffic of Lon-
don. Mr. Thwaites, of the Metropolitan Board of Works,
pronounces this " a great evil," and says, when confronted
with the use made of the Metropolitan Railway in this
manner, " the greater the facility of conveyance, the more
you educate people in the habit of riding instead of walk-
ing." But another witness, Mr. Brunlees, takes a different
view, and observes that the metropolis may be regarded as
a series of contiguous towns, requiring facility of intercourse
with one another. Col. Yolland, of the Board of Trade, has
"a strong opinion" that it is necessary for the relief of the
streets that some arrangement should be made by which
passengers may go from one part of the town to another by
railway. "I am a great advocate,' he says, "for railways
coming into London." The committee have reported that
additional railway communication is needed in the densely-
populated part of the metropolis. The City Surveyor main-
tains that it will come to this, that there will be trains run-
ning north, south, east, and west within the metropolis
every 10 minutes, the lines communicating with each other,
and requiring scarcely any change of carriage. The two
other objects in view are the collection and distribution of
the traffic for the long lines without its having to pass along
so many of the streets, and the establishment of railway
communication across London between the northern and
the southern termini. The traffic in passengers going from
north to south without stopping in London is very consi-
derable, and many in crossing London lose their trains
through the delay in the streets. No wonder the streets
are obstructed. Tho manager of the Midland states that
that railway company alone cart through London to the
southern stations about 100,000 tons of goods in the year,
and that in a few years the quantity will probably have in-
creased five or sixfold. The Great Northern spend £l,OOO a
week in cartage of goods (not coals) to their destination in
London, or to the southern termini. The boldest scheme
propounded to the committee was that of Mr. Fowler, the
engineer of the Metropolitan Railway. Ho proposed that
that railway should be extended westward from its present
Paddington terminus to Notting-hill, and then turned
southwards just beyond Kensington gardens, and brought
back into the city, passing in its way under a now wide street
into Holborn, and finally forming a junction near the Fleet
valley with the existing Metropolitan line. The committee
adopting substantially this project, propose what they style
" an inner circuit of railway," connecting all the principal
railway termini, and comprising not only an extension of the
Metropolitan Railway westward and southward, but also
eastward—and they recommend also that an outer circle of
railway be formed, intersecting the principal northern lines
at a greater distance, but still within the metropolitan dis-
trict, and that every such system of internal railway com-
munication be under one management. Earl Grey pro-
posed a novel arrangement—namely, that as the Metropoli-
tan Railway Company are already in possession of a route
which must form a very considerable part of any system of
railways in London, that company should be invited to pro-
pose a plan for its extension upon the understanding that if
it should prove satisfactory Parliament would refuse to en-
tertain competing proposals from any other quarter; that,
in fact, a concession of the exclusive right of proposing bills
next session for the district between the existing line of
the Metropolitan and an extension line passing round by
Kensington to the raver should be offered to that com-
pany, and that the shares in the new lines to be thus
devised should be disposed of by public competition, and
half of all profits over eight per cent. be paid over to the
Metropolitan Board of Works towards the expense of new
public works. But the committee negatived Earl Grey's re-
solutions. It is thought doubtful whether all the objects in
view can be served by the same line. It is the interest of the
company to give a preference to the short traffic. Mr, Fowler
himself says that the local traffic on the Metropolitan would
be inconsistent with its being used largely for the purposes
of the long lines, or at all events for many of the long lines
coming on at the end of it; but he holds that it might be
made of groat service in collecting and distributing traffic
for all the railways, and its traffic might be increased at
least threefold without difficulty. Mr. Hawkshaw holds
that all the great railways will find it necessary to bring
their stations nearer to the centre of London, and Col. Yol-
land considers that the extension of many of the existing
lines into the metropolis would be advantageous totheepuh
lie. The committee, however, resolved that, with
the xbringeteEe-
, tion of the Great Eastern, it is not desirable to
e
main stations of any of the principal long
London, but that one or more railways should further into
ld be made for
.s
carrying passengers from different part of London to the
main stations, such new lines not to he in the hands of any
one of the great companies, but placed under such manage-
ment as to ensure equal advantages to all. Among thei pro-
jects laid before the committee was onek by Mr. Baza gette
for a railway under the Thames emban ment and new street
totr thtet Mansion-nhouse, communicating with the Cannon-
extending to the North London termi-
nus in Liverpool-street, but Mr. llaywood points to the line
already constructing between the city and Charing-cross.
Mr. Bidder states that if the Great Eastern had coins to
Finsbury-circus he should have proposed a continuation to
Leicester-squr on a viaduct, roofed over, worked on the
principle, with one stationary engine, and
atmospheric
having
a continuous platform, the carriages to stop every
quarter of a mile, and access to the platform to be given by
turnstiles at penny fares, people getting in where they like
and out where they like. Another project has the high
sanction of Colonel Yolland—a line from Euston-road to
Charing-cross, giving direct communication between the
South-Eastern lines and the northern lines ; the northern
lines might then find room about Leicester-square for
stations, where they might make up auxiliary trains to be
coupled to the main trains in Eustonezead. The committee
say nothing of this project, but recommend that there be a
line on the eastern side of the metropolis connecting the
railways north and south of the Thames ; meaning, appa-
rently, either a high level line across the Thames, or aline
through the Thames-tunnel, notwithstanding the difficulty
of the gradients. They consider that the heavy goods traffic
can, as a general rule, be most conveniently carried from
the northern railways to the southern by lines not passing
through the central portions of the metropolis. There is
such a way by Kensington, buhtatvheebmroaunzterooaflsthe Midland
states that after his company to London
from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire for aboutc Gs. a ton,n
a demand of 2s. is made for passage over the lines to Ken-
sington-basin, which practically has the effect of stopping
the traffic, and doing its part towards ards keeping up the price
of coals in the south of England. Mr. Forbes, of the Chat-
ham line, states that it costs (is or Gs. a ton to get goods
through London. It is estimated that new lines in Lon-
don will cost on an average £600,000 per mile. The con-
struction of the one mile from Nine Elms to Waterloo-
road cost £1,000,000, and Mr. Scott can scarcely say the
traffic over that one mile could have paid for so great an
expenditure ; but, looking to the whole of the South-Wes-
tern, it has to be said that it could never have been what it
now is but for that extension, and in reality, therefore, it
spent that money to a very good purpose, both for itself and
the public.

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It is said that some time since the Prince Royal
of Prussia was looking at several emigrants em-
barking at Dantsic for America, when a quay porter ap-
proached and said, "If your royal highness will give me
half-a-crown I will tell you how to prevent any
further
" Well, then, let the King se d
emigration." "Here is a gold Frederic," replied the
Prince;Dl
opeak,
Bismark to America, and I promise you no p- n
follow }aims"
russian will