UNDERGROUND LONDON.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 48, 21 February 1912, Page 3

UNDERGROUND LONDON.

RELIEVING THE STREETS

Those who, have read Mr H. G. Well’s “The Time Machine” will not need to be reminded of the fact that in his peregrinations through Time the hero of that fascinating fantasy came upon an epoch when the world was given over to two classes of people—those who lived above -ground and those who lived and worked below. The upper world folk were pretty pink and -white creatures, whoso existence was one long carnival, tempered by fear -of the. under-worldlings—work-ers in the grinr depths, 1 who had no use for the dwellers above ground, except as welcome' additions to their dietary.' To the average reader Mr Well’s presentation of the conditions existing in the' >far-6ff' time whereof he! writers seems,; no doubt, very “!farfotched,’;' but-to. Londoners who take

in what ip ; g p-' ling oh ■intheir own city -such a state of affairs is by no means inconceivable. Every day we see something that used to be above ground being placed ■beneath the surface. The old ,order in rebuilding premises was to add a story or so to the height of the old. To-day we may add to the height if “ancient lights” and other circumstances permit} but of a’ certainty iwo-add to what our .’forefathers would have called “cellorage,” but which we to-day term “lower ground floors.” In fine,we ;go down instead of going up, ■and to-day there iare thousands of offices in London in which the workers never catc.li a glimpse of daylight during office hours and whose journeyings from office to home are accomplished by means of railways laid from .10ft to 50ft below the streetlevel and tramcar which disappear into the bowels of the earth for a portion of their journev.

Overhead telegraph and telephone wires are slowly but surely being abolished iin favour of line:laid below the earth’s surface, and presently we are piomised that London’s postal service 'shall be carried on jout of sight in so far as the conveyance of Icttois and parcels in hulk from one point to another is concerned. The postmen and the post offices and boxes ' VI H still remain to ns as the outward and visible signs of the greatest public service, but the familiar scaling v ax, red motor, and horse vans are to go, and their place is to he taken ay a service of electric cars operating ]n tubes laid in London clay. The idea of the postal authorities is to carry on the service now performed by vans by means of an underground electric railway, which will link up all the chief receiving and delivery centres in London from Whitechapel to Paddington. ; Py -this means they hope not only to vastly increase the facilities for the speedy collection and distribution of mail matter, hut to do .something tangible towards easing the ever-growing congestion of street traffic, to which the present mail van services contribute a by no means negligible .share. >

There are 'now nearly 1000 mail vehicles (of all kinds in use throughout the area K)f the London, postal ser-> vice. From 5000 to GOOO separate services are performed each day, and the service is growing rapidly, ,as indicated hy the facts that .the total cost of mail van services in London increased from £152,016 in 1900 to £214, 1 32 in 1909, while the mileage of vans increased from 2,282,78-1 in 1900 to 2,658,372 in 1910, and the mileage of tricycles from 400 to 360,000 in the same time. The relief to traffic hy the withdrawal of small vans would therefore he appreciable, and would probably lead to developments in connection with the distribution of small goods hy 'railway companies and others whose vans now congest the main city thoroughfares, and so bring about such a .reduction in street traffic as would render unnecessary the tremendously expensive street-widening schemes which are now on the tapis. So far as the P.O. railway is concerned, it is estimated that it would cost a little

over half a. million to construct and about £36,000 per annum to maintain. As against this, the -authorities put the cost of the road mail van services at approximately £50,000 a year, so that, in their opinion, the construction of the railway would be amply justified on grounds of economy alone, while, in -addition to the financial saving, the railway would provide a much-needed acceleration of the postal service in London generally.