UNDERGROUND MOVEMENTS Sta,—Your contributor Leslie Adrian, very reason- ably calling
attention to the Chairman of London Transport's recent warning that public transport in the capital must be positively encouraged, picks holes in one or two of the answers to a longish list of questions which he recently sent to us.
He appears to deduce from the fact that escalators installed at the Oval station in 1926 are now being modernised that the rate of escalator "modernisation on the Underground is one every forty years, Had he written 'once every forty years' then that would have been right. If he objects to that, he would appear to be saying that equipment should be bought which is not likely to last for forty years. If the London Underground were run on that basis, the bill for re-equipment every year would be enormous.
He also asked us for our views on the idea that tube cars should have tip-up seats only, fixed along the sides. We explained that this was impracticable because the spaces under the existing fixed seats are needed either for the car wheels or for equipment which has to be compressed within the small dimensions of the train. Your contributor does not quote this but says only: 'design considerations preclude any change in the arrangements of the interior of an Underground carriage.' This is wrong; much has been done by new design to make better [Continued on page 308
use of the interior of cars in order to provide more passenger accommodation, but putting in tip-up seats is an impracticable idea because a great deal of equipment has to be carried above the floor level and in tube cars the wheels project above that level. The rear wheels in a motor-car do the same, and the design of the back seat has to be accommodated to this fact. Nearly 1,700 new cars, with more accommodation than those replaced, have been put into service on the Underground railways in the last five years. Over £56 million is currently being spent in building the new Victoria Line. Plans for the further development of the Underground railway system will be .ready as resources for this can be made available.
R. M. ROBBINS Chief Public Relations Officer London Transport. 55 Broadway, SW!
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