The New York Rapid-transit Subway

Proceedings.] DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. 91 Mr. James C. INGLIS, Vice-President, felt bound to say that he Mr. Inglis, had never read a more suggestive Paper, as regarded both engineering and methods of transport, or heard a more suggestive discussion deal- ing with considerations eminently needing attention at the present time in England. Short-distance traffic in England had had a very severe blow. The public had put on to the shoulders of private companies many heavy burdens, as the last speaker had so ably pointed out, with the result that the financial conditions were exceedingly unsatisfactory. It was so with the larger railways. They had come to a point beyond which they could scarcely go. That very day he had been engaged at the Board of Trade in initiating discussions upon the subject, endeavouring to show that in this country the burdens put upon private companies were too much for them to bear. The situation was very serious. As a responsible agent of a large railway, he felt they were carrying a load it was not good they should carry—not good even in the public interest. They desired to see a more liberal treatment of transit questions, such as had been spoken of in New York. The annoyance and inconvenience which the citizens of New York had had to submit to were serious, but tliey only measured the value which the municipality of New York set upon having the best means of transit in the city. London could not copy New York, but New York was really an example to be approached as nearly as possible, and he was quite sure that the nearer it was approached the better it would be for the people. Dealing with the Paper from the engineering point of view, the work showed evidence of much resourcefulness, especially in the changing of design to meet altered conditions. He admired also the wholesale and bold use of reinforced-concrete, and would like to have seen the exhaustive and instructive experiments described in more detail in the Paper. For instance, the simple fact, which he himself had investigated, that a rusty bar made an enormous difference in the strength of the beam as compared with a painted bar, was not very apparent to many people. The experiments on the effect of the intervening concrete arches on the strength of the steel beams yielded valuable facts to have in the Proceedings of The Institution. Another interesting point to him was set out in the conclusions of the Paper, where the high commercial value of speed in regard to the whole under- taking was stated. The promoters of the scheme wished to move the largest number of people over all distances in the shortest possible time. It struck him that the conclusions arrived at were as applicable to long-distance traffic as to short-distance. The problems discussed by Mr. Macassey were the same as were being discussed