“That perseverance which has commanded success for England in so many fields has achieved another triumph in New Zealand. For six years has a quiet, but none the less remarkable, work been going on in the range of hills that divides Christchurch from Lyttelton. Possessed of a splendid harbour, the Province of Canterbury has had to suffer ever since its foundation from the difficulty of communication between its capital and port. At first sight the range of hills appear impassable, and are sufficient to frighten new arrivals. For the first years of the settlement’s existence there was nothing in the shape of a road until the track over the hills was widened into a bridle path. All goods destined for Christchurch had to be sent round in boats up the river. Then came the cutting of a cart road winding round the hills, and eventually reaching Heathcote (which may be properly called the Christchurch side of the range). The latter road was opened in 1859, and ever since the traffic on it has continued increasing. In 1856 an attempt was made to introduce steam navigation on the river, for the quicker and cheaper conveyance of goods, this unfortunately terminated disastrously in the wreck of the steamship Alma. The course of the river having been staked out in 1858, the Planet commenced running, and from that time the number of coasting steamers has steadily increased, while the sailing vessels from being confined to craft of 15 to 20 tons have risen to 100 tons. Still the great desideratum of a direct and rapid communication remained, and various schemes were propounded, but none carried into effect till May 1861, when the Provincial Government accepted a tender from Messrs. Holmes & Co., to complete a line of railway from Lyttelton to Christchurch (a distance of six miles) in five years, for £240,500. In this contract the tunnel, 2,838 yards long (the cost of which was estimated at £195,000), was included. The first sod of the line was cut on the 17th July, 1861, and for six long years, night and day, has the process of boring through the mountain gone on. During that time the contractors have met with all sorts of difficulties, not the least of which have been the attractions offered to their men by the successive outbreaks of the Otago and Canterbury diggings, but, lending their whole energies to the task, the works have not been stopped for a single day. The completion of this work must be productive of the highest benefits to Canterbury.
It will thus be seen that this tunnel cost at the rate of £69 per yard forward, and it required six years to complete it at a cost both of money and time very onerous to a young settlement. With Mr. Fell’s system the tunnel would have been altogether avoided, and it is probable that the line would have been completed in about two years, at a price not exceeding £60,000, instead of the £240,500 it has cost the colony to construct it.
The total length of London’s greatest tunnel, the Metropolitan Railway, from Bishop’s Road to Moorgate Street, is 23,616 feet, or 4½ miles, less 144 feet. Starting from Bishop’s Road, the measurements are as follows:—For 3,024 feet, or 96 feet less than five-eighths of a mile, there is tunnel, then an open space of 675 feet around the Edgware Road station. From there to King’s Cross, 2 miles and 496 feet, is tunnel; but in this distance there are three most effective means of ventilation: the first is at Baker Street Station, 2,640 feet, or exactly half a mile from the Edgware Road Station. The second is at Portland Road Station, 2,978 feet, or 338 feet more than half a mile, from Baker Street. Portland Road Station is the most open of all the four intermediate stations. The third is at Gower Street Station, 1,920 feet, or 60 feet more than three-eighths of a mile. From Gower Street to King’s Cross Station is the longest interval between two stations, 3,900 feet, or 60 feet less than three-quarters of a mile. The distance between the King’s Cross and the Farringdon Street Stations is 5,192 feet, or 88 feet less than a mile. In this distance there are two tunnels—if one of them may be so called, for it is only 220 feet long; the other is 2,170 feet, or 190 feet more than three-eighths of a mile. In the remaining 3,836 feet, or 124 feet less than three-quarters of a mile, there are two little tunnels, one 523 and one 91 feet. During the hours the sun is above the horizon, complete light is never absent in the 91 feet tunnel—the train is no sooner in it than it is out again; and in the longer one there is for a moment or so “a dim religious light,” and then it is actual daylight. The amount of this, however, must depend upon the season of the year at which the passenger goes through it. In certain dark days of November it is hard to say which is the darker of the two—the tunnel or the daylight.
The foregoing measurements will be readily understood by reference to the diagram herewith appended. It is a section of the Metropolitan Railway from end to end.
As regards its ventilation we shall speak presently.
There are two railways in connection with the Metropolitan Railway, which are also to be carried underneath portions of London. The Metropolitan District Railway, when finished, will form the southern side of the inner railway circle that is to encompass London. It connects at Kensington, with the “Metropolitan Extension Railway” (a continuation from Paddington of the Metropolitan Railway). This extension is to run through Brompton to Pimlico, where it will be in closest proximity to the Victoria Stations of the London, Chatham and Dover, and of the London, Brighton and South Coast Companies; from there to Westminster Bridge, whence it is carried along, and, in fact, forms part of, the Thames Embankment, to Blackfriars Bridge. Here it is again in close contact, although at a different level, with the line of the London, Chatham and Dover Company, near its Ludgate Hill station. Proceeding eastward, it is carried as far as Trinity Square, Tower Hill, where it is to meet the eastern “Metropolitan Extension” of the Metropolitan Railway. These two sections finished, the whole inner Metropolitan circle will be completed. The distance from Kensington to Trinity Square is 33,150 lineal feet, or 6 miles and 1,470 feet, of which a little more than a third—that is, 10,974 feet—or 2 miles and 414 feet, are open cuttings or glass-covered stations, and a little less than two-thirds, or 4 miles and 1,056 feet, are in tunnel. The open cuttings and the tunnels are constantly alternating; the three longest of the latter are 665 feet; one is close to Gloucester Road Station, Brompton; one is at Tothill Street, Westminster; and the third is in the Thames Embankment. The gradients are favourable, there being only 2,352 feet (or less than half a mile) of 1 in 100, or 52 feet in the mile. These are all situated between Blackfriars Bridge and Trinity Square, Tower Hill. In addition to the foregoing main line of the Metropolitan District Line, there is to be a railway from Kensington High Street to join the West London Railway—the line that connects the London and North-Western and the Great Western railway systems north of the Thames with the Clapham Junction Station on the south. From Clapham Junction there is unbroken connection with all parts of the London and South-Western, and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railways.
The length of the Kensington and West London Extension of the Metropolitan District Extension is to be 7,470 feet, or 450 feet less than a mile and a half, of which 5,565 are to be entirely open, 525 station roof and 1,380 covered way.