Show I NEW SCHEME TO CROSS CHANNEL Present Trip From London to the French Capital Is Too Inconvenient TRAIN FERRY SUGGESTED TIME AND LABOR TO BE RE REDUCED REDUCED REDUCED BY NEW SYSTEM London May 8 The traveler who Is bound for Copenhagen clambers Into the comfortable sleeping car at the Bahnhof In Berlin at 11 o 0 clock at night gives a shilling to the trim to look after atter his hla baggage at the Danish Customs and goes to bed to awake to his morning coffee within half an hour or so of the Danish Danich capital all an oblivious of the thet t he has crossed in his slum bers twentysix miles of the storm tossed Baltic For at on the German shore the Copenhagen ex express express express press has been shunted bodily on to the great train ferry and smoothly and swiftly borne across to on the Danish coast Berlin to Copenhagen en Is an eleven hour trip London to Paris takes six and a half hours yet the Londoner be he a multimillionaire or a commercial trav tray traveler traveler eler has to turn out In the middle of the night walk shivering and bag laden to the steamer and If he has not no the means to afford a cabin must rest uncomfortably In the saloon or on deck until he walks once more shivering and across the gangway on onto onto onto to French soil soli The distance between Germany and Denmark from shore to shore of the Baltic and across the Straits of Dover Is about the same but the difference In the comfort of the two Journeys would have elicited pic pie picturesque picturesque animadversion even from Mark Tapley The reason Teason Is the same as that which has hitherto deprived London of a pneumatic postal service and as that which Is at the bottom of most abuses of modern life in England English En lIsh conservatism At the meeting of the Association of ot otC Chambers C of Commerce In London the theother theother theother other day the British Chamber of Com Corn Commerce Commerce merce of ot Paris proposed a resolution expressing the opinion that a train ferry system across the English Chan Channel Channel nel net would be of ot great commercial ad advantage advantage vantage vanta e to Great Britain and that his government be urged to take such steps as may be necessary and possible for insuring Its early adoption adoption adoption tion The hardheaded men of com corn commerce commerce merce who form the membership of chambers of commerce are not con concerned concerned concerned with the sufferings of the In Individual Individual Individual cros channel passenger They The have to consider trade interests alone and the advantage accruing to com corn commerce commerce merce through the abolition of trans transshipment transshipment shipment of goods first at the English port and then at the French Is so transparently obvious as to secure the I earnest consideration of ot the British Chamber of Commerce In Paris It Is at present calculated that the average avera e cost per ton of transshipment of merchandise from rail to boat and from boat to rail again at Dover and Calais represents represent Is Sd that is to t say 35 Jd for the double transshipment This saving alone would represent a considerable margin of profit The cost of the transfer of ot goods naturally varies greatly with the nature of the wares but a large portion of Anglo French commerce consists of fragile articles such as eggs e gS fruit flowers and artistic articles which have to tobe tobe tobe be separately and carefully handled thereby increasing the labor and there therefore therefore therefore fore the cost of operation A good proof of the fact tact that the necessity of reducing the waste of time and labor consequent on the double transship transshipment ment Is afforded by the methods adopt adopted ed by b the London Southwestern rail railway raIlway railway way for conveying American Ain A Ican meat It is loaded on to carts at the dock side and these carts are placed bodily on goods trucks so that In London horses can be harnessed up and the meat taken Immediately to Smithfield without the delay dela caused by further unpacking Opinions generally seem to agree that the channel crossing Is susceptible ible ble of sensible Improvement The Brit BritIsh British Ish sh government has vetoed vet ed the channel tunnel the channel bridge is regarded as Impracticable not only from the political point of view for itIs almost certain that other nations notably Germany German would protest against the blocking Mocking of this great marine high highway hl h way but also from the engineering standpoint There remains the chan eban channel channel nel ferry The experience of these ferries which were vere originally Intro Introduce duce In Europe In the United King Kingdom Kingdom Kin dom dorn by b train ferries over the Forth and the Tay since superseded by bridges and which already exist In the United d States State Sweden Denmark Italy and Russia has been that they almost instantly bring with them a very ap appreciable appreciable increase of goods and pas passenger passenger passenger traffic which In course of time repays the initial cost of special har liar harbor harbor bor accommodation and the construction construction construction tion of strong and powerful ferry steamers The latest train ferry is that between Germany and Sweden opening a direct communication be between between between of Eu Europe EurOpe Europe tween Stockholm and the rest rope The stretch of sea Pea between Sas In Germany and Trelleborg In Sweden Is no less than 06 5 G miles With regard to the channel ferry ferr tim the Intercontinental Railway company a company formed out of the old Channel Bridge Bi e Tunnel 5 company a exists which for tor some years now iu U liaa 1 lieu i ion on an active propaganda p on behalf of its object with the noteworthy result that It has secured the patronage of the British Chamber of Commerce In I Paris on behalf of its scheme It is proposed that powers should be secured from parliament to authorize the company to take over oer the channel transit across the route and to maintain the service by b means of passenger and good train ferries It will be necessary to provide special docks at Dover with apparatus for lifting or lowering the trains to the levels of the ferries to erect sheds for Tor the housing and customs examina examination examination tion of wares and to build specially designed steamers to transport the trains bodily across the straits It Is proposed that these steamers should be t e turbine vessels vessel The trains will be berun berun berun run on lines Into the body bod of the ships and on the upper decks will be pro provided provided provided I vided restaurants and smoking saloons as In the Swedish and Danish boats some at of which It may be noted were wese built in England Thus passengers on the day service will be able to leave their seats In the train and lunen on the ferry terry en route and at night can stay comfortable In their sleeping car berths without being disturbed It Is anticipated that th t if the railway com corn companies companies adopt the scheme the times of the night trains from London will win be so altered that passengers may go 0 to bed bedIn bedIn bedIn In the train at Charing Cross and wake up as the Calais Calai Is steam Ine ln In Into the Gare GaJe du Nord In Paris ParisI I r have talked with Oliver ton the Paris lawyer who is a director of the Intercontinental Rail Rall Railway way company and a leading spirit In Inthe inthe inthe the scheme and he complains bitterly i of or the obstructionist attitude of the English railways He levels the charge against a the Channel hannel ferry objections of detail which the ferry crry company dis disproves disproves proves only to find them succeeded by other objections of ot as Mr tr Bodington declares an equally superficial char character character character acter He adds that the new Is not committed to the route and that the success of the I ferry proves that the route Is la equally 1 well adapted to a train ferry The at attitude attitude attitude of Jt f the railway companies seems to bo that the plans of the Channel Ferry company com pan are not definite enough and there appears to be aa n apprehension hension lest the railways should be drawn Into supporting a scheme which the weight of their names would ren renter renter ter attractive to the public DubUc hut but which on being approached would not b be found practicable |