Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1919 — CUT TIME OF TRIP TO PARIS [ARTICLE]

CUT TIME OF TRIP TO PARIS

Twenty-four Hours to Be Lopped Off Journey From New York. RAIL PROJECT THE MEANS New Lines to Be Constructed Which Will Expedite Progress of Voyager Between United States and French Metropolis.” London—There are plans afoot which will cut down the time now necessarily spent in traveling from New York to Paris. Of course, eventually we are .to skim through the air in a day or so. But for the average American that experience may be a little remote. In the meantime, according to the Madrid correspondent of the London Times, certain railway projects in Spain are tending to expedite the progress of the voyager. It may at first thought seem curious that one’s transatlantic passage should be affected by such means. But the correspondent shows us why: Rail Projects In Spain. “Considerable Interest is being manifested in Spain in two great railway projects. The first, already voted as a bill by the Spanish senate, is for a direct line from Dax, in southern France, 'to Algeciras, near Gibraltar. This line is a project of the English and French governments, and will form a link in the great railway from London to the Cape, the completion 'of which is now only a matter of time. This line across Spain will be of the international and not of the Spanish gauge; it will be worked by electric traction, and will take the shortest possible route. “Many schemes have been prepared, but, although the final decision has not yet been made on many points of detail, the broad principles have been agreed upon. 'The northern section of the line, from Dax to Madrid, to avoid unnecessary competition with the Norte railway from Irrin, will not touch the points of junction from which that line draws its chief goods traffic? but will pass direct through Pamplona and. Sorlac. The southern section, in the plan which seems most likely to be approved, will for similar reasons take a straight course through a practically uninhabited part of the country. « "It Is proposed to make only one

stop between Madrid and Algeciras, at Cuenca, where —as the line will be, at first at any rate, a single one—the trains from the north and south will cross. The northern journey will .be made in six-to seven hoiirs, as against the present thirteen from Irun to Madrid. “The other line is designed to run from Vigo to the French frontier, probably at Hendaye, and is part of a great American project for developing the port of Vigo by the building of docks, warehouses, and all the equipment of a great commercial harbor. By this scheme the journey from New York to Paris can be shortened by twenty-four hours and its importance can be measured by the fact that its realization will give America a commercial entrance to Europe. "The vast contracts connected ■with these schemes are already the subject of rival studies and investigations, and Englishjirms purposing to tpke a part should lose no time in getting into touch with the conditions on the .spot.”