TUBE TRAINS TO FRANCE.

Shannon News, 19 April 1929, Page 4

TUBE TRAINS TO FRANCE.

CITY MAN'S CHANCE TO WAKE UP IN PARIS.

Advantages that would follow the construction of a Channel tunnel linking this country with France AA*ere outlined by m Southern Railway expert. In a paper read to raihv'ay students at the London School of Economics, Mr. F. A. Brant, Avho is head of tlie Continental Department of the Southern Railway, declared that with two tubes under the Channel: — . # There eoukl be electric trains' at ten-minute intervals, day and night.

The business man could leave London at S a.m., give four or five hours in Paris, and be back in London before midnight.

Pullman cars on ,the trains would be fitted Avith wireless telephones, so that appointment.? might be made on the way.

If the' business man preferred a night journey he would be able to get into a sleeping berth at London and wake up in Paris or Brussels. Might Not Pay at First.

There Avould be a tremendous saving of time in the transport of merchandise. Motorists would be cared for by the provision of motor-car trains in which the cars Avould bo carried through the tunnel in "a short halfhour."

"■I am not' prepared to say that tho Channel Tunnel would be a paying pro"position to begin with," added Mr. Brant, "but the immense value to th<; country of such an undertaking by bringing over thousands of visitors who would never come otherwise would justify any financial support on- the part of r the Government. It could be a large shareholder as in the case of the Suez Canal." Mr. Brant ridiculed the idea that railways would be superseded by aircraft in the next 20 years. The railways would hold their own for many more years.