Evening star., 1962-10-01

IN It's plans TO push coIlSIIuCClo
The British government di
a month ago. Officials said
work started last week. =
The project is the first in
SIS years to enlarge the capacity
of the subway here. The ex-
tension will be known as the
Victoria Line.
1t will run from the Victoria
railway station in central Lon
don, across the busy West End
business and shopping area,
and on out to the densely pop
ulated Tottenham and Wal
thanstow suburbs.
Six Years Work
Six years will be needed to
complete the project. If it
weren't for the complexity of
constructing a three-level un-
derground system of inter-
changes with other lines at
Oxford Circus, already one of
the busiest in town centers, Of
ficials say the tunnel could be
completed earlier.
Take a look at oxford Circus
at the evening rush-hour and
you can see why we've neeoed
this line" the transport official
said.
We took a look. Queues OF
commuters were lined up out
into the street between 5 and
8 pm, waiting to descend and
board a train. 1t is London's
busiest subway station.
The British call their subway
the underground. Sometimes it's
called the tube" Tube and
underground are used inter-
changeably to describe the sys-
TEN, but there's difference.
Strictly speaking, the tube is
the part that was tunneled,
like a mole boring under the
ground" the spokesman said.
THE underground part was
built a different way-by cut
and cover"
Cut and Cover
Cut and cover, incidentally,
is the British way of describing
a construction process of dig
ging down into the street to
the required depth, building the
rail line and stations. and then
covering over the top to form
the street again, and thus COM
plete the work.
The new Victoria line can't
be built that way.
Traffic congestion on the
central streets is already among
the worst in the world. So an
other tube will be tunneled
deep in the clay beneath the
city. Neither existing subway
trains nor street traffic will be
much interfered with.
Building the new subway
line is expected to cost almost
5000 million, But the Ministry
of Transports special commits
sion emphatically said it's the
only way out.
Nothing is easier than to
recommend spending public
money" the commission stated.
but we think this investment,
as far as London travel and
traffic problems are concerned,
is not only inescapable but
justified.
'Peak-hour pressure on the
present system has increased to
It's present intolerable level and
will continue to grow in the
near future"
The commission studied other
alternatives, including more
ouses and more roads. 1t did
not oppose roads, but within
he city, it said, roads could
not solve the problem.
Bus services in the central
city area are already badly
handicapped by traffic conges-
ion and tend to run irregular
y" it reported.
"A more intensive bus serv-
ce would still suffer from these
Also bus services
ire necessarily slower than the
underground, and more expen-
'ive for regular travellers over
onger distances"
Different Purposes
AS for rail versus highways,
The commission said the two
serve different purposes" and
10Th should go forward"
At the moment, the 90-mile
pays its own way
and operates at small profit.
But this pleasant state of af-
fairs has existed only in re-
cent years. Previously it ran
1T a deficit. The deficit may
possibly reappear while the
transport corporation is pay
ng off the money it needs to
borrow to build the additional
inc.
Thanks to a decision a year
ago to do some research on
new techniques of subway con-
'truction, about a mile of the
new tube is already built.
The whole line will be in
twin tunnels about II feet
In diameter, at an average
depth of SO feet.