New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-02-02
CITY R1ILWAYS.

The Special Commissioners appointed by the
Legislature to report method of increasing
the facilities Of transit in this City had not
merely to mature plan for the future, but one
which should speedily and without too great ex-
pense supply immediate wants. The present
system of horse railroads is VIGOROUSLY made
quate to accommodate the public; the cars on
the main lines, such as the Third and Eighth
Avenues, are OvercrOwded, and slow, and
interfere with business of the streets. 1t
is indispensable to speedy, cheap, and
convenient transit that new system should
be invented. The Commissioners have reported
that if every avenue lengthwise of the Island
were to be occupied at once with surface rails,
the accommodation would not be sufficient for
present needs, and in three years would prove
| to be as inadequate as that of to-day.
Understanding the necessity of a new SYSTEM
| the Commission appear to have had made care
| full examination of the Tunnel roads OF Lon
don, and are so well satisfied with the work
ings that they declare that underground rail-
"ways, passing under streets, present the only
"speedy remedy for the present and prospec-
Give wants of the City OF New York, III
"the matter of the safe, rapid, and cheap
Transportation of persons and property One
London road cost S750000 per mile, and now
carries an average of 100000 passengers weekly.
This cost it is estimated, will not be required
| in NewYOrk, as the London company had to
J buy the way through private property. Upon
this suggestion, a bill has already been intro
duced into the Legislature to charter COM
pany, with n capital stock of s6,OOOOOO, to build
a tunnel road from Brooklyn to Jersey City,
| fha Eoot opn North Rivers. and
under the surface of the island.
We have not the least doubt of the value of
tunncling, but do not believe that it will sat
isfy the wants of the community, unless COM
bined with other methods. 1t would be many
years, before depending upon it alone, safe and
speedy transit would be obtained. All of the
advantages Of the tunnel system are retained
in the plan of the Metropolitan Transit Com
pany, of which we have already spoken, and
to these it adds others equally important.
I. Upon single route it builds three lines of
railway, an immense economy of space.
2. 1t provides basement steam line for the
transportation of freight; a ground-floor track
for the accommodation of transient passengers;
and n ond-floor, elevated track, for swift
passenger trains passing, with halfmile stations,
the entire length Of the Island.
8. BY this plan no one kind of transit inter
feres with the others; and any number of pas
sengers may be carried from High Bridge to
tho Battery in thirty minutes.
A. Buying its way through houses and yards,
it leaves the streets entirely free for ordinary
transit and business.
o. 1t safely allows the use Of steam, which
the Commission believe must he banished from
the railways of the island There are other
reasons why it should be adopted-for instance,
the protection from the weather, the fact that
the basement track could be laid in much
shorter time than the island could be tunneled,
that it would he a speedy method of supply
ing transit, and that the immense business it
would at once do would enable the company
TO establish n low rate Of fares. Its freight
| business alone would be enormous.
The adoption of the tunnel system would not
prevent the trial of this admirable plan, to
which the sole objections of the Commission
are its cost and possible delay in the ac-
ouisiton of the right Of way. New-YOrk,
in time, will probably need both methods,
for the city, being unlike any other in its
extreme length, requires more than any
other the means of longitudinal transit. The
Legislature having begun in this matter, should
not end till some plan is selected, and we be-
hcve that the three-fold railway of the Metro
politan Transit Company is that plan which
should first be tried