The story of rapid transit . Whenthe era of railways dawned there were nearly3,000 stage-coaches in operation—of whichnumber about half plied out of and into London—and about 100 mail-coaches. In his coachsystem the Englishman took a natural pride, es-pecially upon comparing it with that of no other country was there such promptitudeof arrival and departure, or such a volume oftransportation traffic. For instance, the Edinburgh mail ran 400miles in forty hours, stoppages included, whichwas at the rate of nearly eleven miles an hour. •/ A coach to Exeter, the Herald, went over itsgrou
The story of rapid transit . Whenthe era of railways dawned there were nearly3,000 stage-coaches in operation—of whichnumber about half plied out of and into London—and about 100 mail-coaches. In his coachsystem the Englishman took a natural pride, es-pecially upon comparing it with that of no other country was there such promptitudeof arrival and departure, or such a volume oftransportation traffic. For instance, the Edinburgh mail ran 400miles in forty hours, stoppages included, whichwas at the rate of nearly eleven miles an hour. •/ A coach to Exeter, the Herald, went over itsground, 173 miles, in twenty hours, although thecountry was hilly; and the Devonport mail per- speed was not the product of blind insensate agencies, thathad no sympathy to give, but was incarnated in the fiery eye-balls of the noblest among brutes, in his dilated nostril,spasmodic muscles and thunder-beating hoofs. THE FIRST RAILWAYS formed its journey, 227 miles, in twenty-twohours. Of course this increase of speed was. o rt O u .s £» .cH CJ ri O U bp w considered alarming by those who had been ac-customed to the old-fashioned slow coaches, and 28 THE STORY OF RAPID TRANSIT the speed at which the new vehicles traveledwas regarded as a menace to human life. Nevertheless, there were a body of men cry-ing progress, men like Anderson and Gray, whodeclared that the commercial future of the coun-try depended upon rapid transit, and that if rail-roads with steam locomotives were employed itwould even be possible to attain a velocity oftwenty miles an hour. Upon this proposal theutmost ridicule was cast, especially by the Quar-terly Rcviciv, which assured its readers that thepeople would as soon suffer themselves to befired off upon one of Congreves ricochet rocketsas trust themselves to the mercy of such a ma-chine (a high-pressure engine) and going at sucha rate (eighteen or twenty miles an hour).Criticizing the project of the London and Wool-wich Railroad, the Quarterly backed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidstoryofrapid, bookyear1903
