LONDON TO PARIS.
[To TER EDITOR OF TER "SPECTATOR...I SIR,—One may hope that the interesting correspondence in the Times on this matter may bear some fruit. While we wait for the Channel Tunnel or (as a pis-aller) for the promised train-ferry, it is obvious that one very consider- able trial for invalids and nervous persons might be at once diminished. I mean the transshipment of oneself and one's parcels, and the consequent fighting for room in the train on the other side. These uncertainties prey upon the imagination, and must deter many from crossing the Channel et all, especially when one adds the harpy-like exactions of the porters and the exasperating arrangement of the Calais douane. I suggest that if we cannot yet have a single train running through, we might do something towards approxi- mating to this ideal. Let us have the two trains (English and French) assimilated in point of arrangement, accom- modation, and extent to the utmost possible degree. Then let each coach be similarly and plainly lettered A, B, C, &c., in each train, and each seat similarly numbered. Let each passenger on arriving at Calais present the numbered ticket of the Beat le occupied in the English carriage, and there- by be entitled to occupy the corresponding one in the French train. I venture to think that much confusion and apprehension would thus be avoided, while the route, be it
that rid Dieppe or that rid Calais, which first adopts some such reform will steal a good many passengers front
its-
Grand Hotel, Baden-Suisse.
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