THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 392, 26 May 1881, Page 2

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Regarding- the financial aspect of tliejOhannel Tunnel,' the Builder says :—#l '• Precedents as to the cost would haTSttsK w justify an engineer in estimating a tinder the Channel at less than £2OO per' yard, or per mile, Being less than Half the cost- of the metropolitan ■* lines, of the cost of whioh, however, we must remember that the price of land formed an important though undistinguished portion. To pay 5 per cent, oil £350,000 per mile requires a traffic of about £25,000 per mile per annum, or more than five times that of the South Eastern rail way. No English railway ap--proaches the quarter of this figure with the* exception of the metropolitan lines, which t«ke respectively £38.500 and .£34*300* per mile. These, it i» well • known, are entirely exceptional cases, fed by constant > local' urban traffic, with stations a littlemore than a mile apart: In the Channel* Tunnel there can be no local traffic. - Generally speaking, it will be onlythethrough passengers from London to Parisand vice versa who could be depended on to feed the line. Taking all things in the ■ most favorable light, we have to consider whether a traffic equal to that of the Metropolitan District line is rationally to be expected under any circumstances to* arise between Dover and Calais;"!. ~