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Raitufrago luta
Page 62
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bub tad go.•••
It is strange that Mr J. C. Cooper and his associates should produce a paper with the negative title "Railways into busways won't go" and now he contradicts himself however reluctantly by saying "It is all very well saying that rail conversion into roads is a physical possibility and, I do not dispute this. What I do maintain, however, is that the cost of conversion cannot generally be justified."
This surely means that Mr Cooper knows very well that
railways into busways will go, but he thinks it will be very expensive. Surely, it should be realised that high costs are the result of the Government debasing the currency so that the £1 today is worth 61/2p of its 1914 rate whereas the gold sovereign is worth £29.
One of the first examples of railway conversion took place in 1937-38 when the railway embankment to Roa Island south of Barrow in Furness was converted into an 18ft wide road. This is about one-mile long and cost only £3,500. Some 30 years later the 41/2-mile section of the Southport Relief road was built for £104,000. This used the route of the old Cheshire lines railway and the cost of the 24ft wide road worked out at £26,100 per mile.
I would say that at the present time £150,000 per mile would be a reasonable figure for converting a two-track railway into a 24ft wide road. In the case of a four track railway such as the Midland north of St Pancras, £300,000 per mile should be ample for dual 24ft-wide carriageways.
A. 1. WATKINSON, Harrogate, North Yorks.