UNDERGROUND TRAMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1500, 24 July 1912, Page 5

UNDERGROUND TRAMS.

SIDNEY TRAFFIC PROBLEM. By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopyrizit Sydney, July 23; Mr. Griffith, Minister for Public Works, has announced that the Government has decided to adopt underground trams, extending from Bondi Junction and under the harbour to Bolmain. In the -New South Wales Legislative Assembly on March. 30 last Mr. Parkes moved that the House should express its opinion on <u schemo proposed % Mr. Kneoshaw, manager of tho tramwav= for converting the trams 'into an underground system section by section.; "This great centre is . built 'on a very narrow peninsula, and it has only four nicans of ingress and egress for the business people," > continued Mr. Parkes. "It be-; comes the imperative duty of the Government to find soma means of relieving tho congestion." Tho only obvious conclusion, he went on, was that the tramways should .be put underground. The Premier might raise tho objection that it was a very difficult problem to overcome, but as a matter of fact it was « very' simple piece of construction. The method was to take the streets of the qity one by one and convert tho trams to the underground system. A section of Pitt Street, say, would be shut up, and by •that was known as thei "cut and. cover" system the tram traffic would be gradually transposed from tho surface.to just underneath the street. While only a single line.could run alone the street, by the cut and cover method a double line could be put into use. After constructing the first section, and having covered 'it over by stael and concrete, it would be opened to traffic both above and below. Section by section every street would be.converted. Sydney's' concrete foundations lent themselves exoellently to the work.