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The beginning of railway
construction in Scotland goes back to the eighteenth century. The first
railways were waggon tracks laid down for the purpose of facilitating local
goods traffic consisting chiefly of coal and iron. In 1745, the y<mr of the
Battle of Prestonpans, a trainway was in operation in the neighbourhood of
the battlefield. It consisted of cast iron rails placed on transverse planks
and served to convey the coal waggons, drawn by horses from the mines at
Tranent, to the harbour of Cockenzie on the Firth of Forth. Such a track was
in use from the collieries at Little Govan to the Clyde at Springfield as
early as 1778, horse haulage being used as in the case of canal traffic.
Another line connecting Kilmarnock and Troon Harbour, a distance of fully
ten miles—the nucleus of the later Glasgow and Southwestern—was opened in
1811. The iron rails were 4 feet apart and 4 inches broad, rested on stone
blocks, and crossed the Irvine by a bridge of four arches, each of 40 feet
span. Over this track a horse could haul two loaded waggons at the rate of
two miles an hour. Passenger carriages were also run on it at a more
expeditious rate of speed and in this respect it was an anticipation of the
later tramway system of cities. A few years later George Stephenson
successfully solved the problem of applying steam to railway haulage and in
1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened for the conveyance of
passengers as well as goods. In the following year the first Scottish
railway, on which the proprietors were authorised by Act of Parliament to
run "locomotives or moveable engines"—that between Monk-land and
Kirkintilloch on the Forth and Clyde Canal—was completed and opened for
traffic. Its length was ten miles and at first horse haulage was used, one
horse drawing four waggons of coal or ironstone, equal to 12 tons, from
Monkland to the Canal at Kirkintilloch and returning with the empty waggons
at the rate of three journeys in two days. By 1832, however, two locomotives
were at work on the line with the result that the cost of carriage was
greatly reduced and the rent of the collieries proportionately enhanced to
the proprietors. Within ten years the line was doubled and an extension,
authorised by Parliament in 1826, was carried out by another company in the
Monkland coalfield known as the Ballochney Railway. In 1835 powers were
obtained by a third company for a further extension, under the name of the
Slamannan Railway, from the termination of the Ballochney line, through
Slamannan and Avonbridge, to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Canal at Causewayend.
In 1848 the three companies were amalgamated as the Monkland Railways and in
1865 were acquired by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which, later in the
same year, became part of the North British system. The old
Monkland-Kirkintilloch Railway may thus be regarded as the nucleus of the
North British. In the same year that the Ballochney Railway was sanctioned,
Parliament authorised an extension westwards from the Monkland coalfield to
Glasgow under the name of the Garnkirk Railway— the nucleus of the
Caledonian. The rapid industrial development of Glasgow necessitated a
cheaper and more expeditious supply of coals than could be obtained by water
carriage on the Monkland Canal. The line, 8£ miles long, cost £12,000 per
mile and followed the course of the Canal. It was opened in 1831, the first
train being drawn by a locomotive named the "George Stephenson" and driven
by Stephenson himself.- "The city terminus was St Rollox," says Mr Eyre
Todd. "Two locomotives, weighing 6| tons each, were got from Stephenson's
works at Newcastle, and on an autumn day the railway was opened with much
ceremony and eclat. An engraving of the time shows the two trains passing
each other on the double line of rails at the bottom of a shallow cutting.
The squat, little, low engines have tall chimney-stalks, and the driver
stands on a small open platform, while the train consists of four open
trucks filled with passengers, two covered carriages on the model of the old
mail-coaches, with the guards sitting on the roof, and a high open
char-a-banc in the rear occupied by ladies. . . . The train weighed over 100
tons; nevertheless, it is recorded, the engine ' advanced under this
prodigious load, not only with perfect freedom, but at the speed of a stage
coach.' " It proved a boon to the Glasgow factories, the cost of the
carriage of coal from the Monkland collieries to Glasgow ere long falling
from 3s. 6d. to 1s. 3d. per ton. Passengers as well as goods were carried,
and on the Glasgow Fast Day in October, 1834, when as many as six trains
were despatched from St Rollox, about 1,250 passengers were forwarded. Three
years later the system of collecting the fares in transit gave place to that
of purchasing tickets before starting on the journey. The increase in the
passenger traffic was even more substantial than in that of minerals.
Whereas in the first five years after the opening of the line the tonnage of
minerals carried rose from 114,000 to 140,000 tons, the number of passengers
increased from 02,000 to 145,000.
Another line running between
Wishaw and Coltness, which may also be regarded as a nucleus of the
Caledonian, was opened in 1833. In 1837 powers were obtained by a company to
construct a line from Glasgow to Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr— another
important step towards what became the Glasgow and South-Western Railway.
On the eastern side of the
country railway extension may be said to have started with the line which
connected the capital with Dalkeith, by way of Fisherrow, with a branch to
Leith, and which was authorised in 1826. This line, popularly known as " the
Innocent Railway," was miles in length and was opened in 1831, horse
traction being used for the conveyance of goods and passengers. Although the
company was authorised to use self-moving locomotives, these horse-drawn
carriages were run as late as 1845, a stationary engine being used to haul
them by means of ropes up the tunnelled incline from Duddingston to St
Leonard's station. During the next 30 years or so powers were successively
obtained by various companies and lines constructed to connect Edinburgh
with Glasgow, Berwick, Hawick, Carlisle, Dunfermline, Alloa, Stirling,
Perth, Dundee.' The company which constructed the line from Edinburgh to
Berwick, with a branch to Haddington, opened in 1840, took the name of the
North British, and this company gradually absorbed the others operating in
the south-eastern and eastern region from Berwick and Carlisle to the Tay,
and gradually added to its mileage by the construction of branch lines
within the area in which it is practically supreme. It extended its radius
northwards of the Tay to Arbroath, Montrose, and Bervie, with running powers
from Montrose to Aberdeen. Westwards it carried its connections by
amalgamation or new construction to Bathgate, Airdrie, Coatbridge, Hamilton,
Bo'ness, Grangemouth, Larbert, Aberfoyle, Helensburgh, and Balloch on Loch
Lomond. In 1889 it took powers to penetrate the West Highlands by a line
running from Helensburgh to Fort William, a distance of 100 miles, which was
ojpened in 1897 and subsequently extended westwards to Mallaig and
northwards to Fort Augustus. In order to obviate the drawback of crossing
the Forth and Tay by ferry boat, it carried out two of the greatest feats in
railway construction by the bridging of these two firths. The first bridge
across the Tay, two miles in length, which was opened in June 1878, was too
slender and too badly constructed to bear the weight of traffic and the wind
pressure, and was destroyed by a furious gale on Sunday night, the 28th
December, 1879, the passenger train from Edinburgh to Dundee, which
attempted to cross it on the evening of that day being precipitated with its
living freight into the water below. It was replaced by a far more
substantial structure, which was opened in 1887. The consequent increase by
the East Coast traffic between north and south made it necessary to bridge
the Forth between North and South Queensferry, and with the co-operation of
the English North-Eastern, Great Northern, and Midland Companies the
Parliamentary sanction of this great undertaking was obtained in 1882. The
bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker on the
cantilever principle and its construction, which was carried out by the
former, was completed in 1890. Its opening, in turn, necessitated the
enlargement of the Waverley Station at Edinburgh, begun in 1895 and
completed in 1900. At the date of its opening it was, and probably still is,
the largest station in Great Britain, comprising over 23 acres, of which
fully the half are under roof. The two main line platforms are each about
560 yards in length, with four dock platforms at each end of an average
length of 180 yards. The total cost of the station and the reconstruction of
the Waverley Bridge was 1| million pounds. The goods station at Portobello,
one of the largest in the United Kingdom, has also in recent years been
greatly extended. Another great engineering work was the construction of the
" City and District " line, underneath the heart of Glasgow, to connect with
the eastern line to Edinburgh via Bathgate and the Helensburgh line along
the north side of the Clyde.
Since the incorporation of
the Company in 1844 for the construction of the line between Edinburgh and
Berwick, with a branch to Haddington, its mileage has steadily increased
until it is now the longest of all the Scottish railways. The Edinburgh and
Berwick line was about 62 miles long. In 1864 the mileage had swelled to
749. About fifty years later (1912) it had nearly doubled with 1,339 miles.
A corresponding increase had taken place in the traffic. In 1864 the number
of passengers and the tonnage of goods and minerals carried were over 7
millions and millions respectively, and the receipts were £1,261,785. In
1912 the figures were 84,984,829 passengers and 29,867,262 tons of goods and
minerals, and the income was over 5 million odds, whilst the paid up capital
reached a total of 71 million odds.
The Caledonian Railway
Company, like the North British, has grown into the great dimensions of
to-day by means of amalgamation as well as direct construction. Though the
Company bearing this name was incorporated in 1845, its genesis, as already
noted, may be found in the Glasgow and Garnkirk and the Wishaw and Coltness
Railways, which it amalgamated in 1846 and 1849. It was formed to construct
a line from Carlisle up the valley of the Annan, over the Beattock summit,
into Clydesdale to Edinburgh in the east, Glasgow in the west, and Greenhill
in the north. The great obstacle to the realisation of the scheme was the
sharp gradient to the Beattock summit, which appeared at first to be
insuperable. An alternative line with an easier gradient from Lockerbie up
the Nith to Kilmarnock and Glasgow was proposed and debated. But ultimately
the Annan-dale route was selected, and the line as originally conceived was
completed in 1848, the total length being 144 miles. From Greenhill
northward the Scottish Central Railway, completed in 1848, ran to Perth.
Another line, constructed by a separate Company and opened in 1847,
connected Perth with Dundee. From Perth northward the Scottish Midland,
completed in the same year, extended to Forfar, whence the North-Eastern
Railway extended to Aberdeen. By a series of amalgamations carried out in
1865-66 these companies were absorbed into the Caledonian, which then became
the owner of the whole line from Carlisle to Aberdeen. From this line a
series of branches, as the result of further amalgamations or new
construction, diverge east and west. The connections to the west extend to
Dumfries,
Portpatrick, Glasgow,
Greenock, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Wemyss Bay, Oban, Ballachulish, Crieff,
Blairgowrie, Kirriemuir, Brechin; to the east, Peebles, Dolphinton,
Edinburgh, Alloa, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose. Several of these connections,
particularly the Castle Douglas-Portpatrick, and the Callander and Oban
lines—the latter completed in 1880—are not owned, but only worked by the
Caledonian, and from Larbert to Edinburgh it has only running powers over
the North British. From Glasgow to the capital it maintains a through
service by a line which was completed in 1866.
The Caledonian has not been
called on to face such engineering problems as the bridging of the Forth and
Tay Firths. But it has to its credit the construction of the longest tunnel
in Scotland connecting Greenock and Gourock, which occupied five years.
Another work of vast difficulty was the construction of the Glasgow Central
Underground Railway, 7 miles in length, in order to obtain direct access to
the docks instead of running their trains over the North British round the
north of Glasgow. Up to 1873 the Glasgow terminus was on the south side of
the Clyde, but in this year an Act was obtained to bridge the river and
construct the Central Station in Gordon Street. Both were subsequently
extended, and this extension, begun in 1901, was completed in 1910. During
the last fifty years its mileage has steadily grown from 230 miles in 1864
to 900 in 1912, with a corresponding increase in the number of passengers
and the tonnage of goods and minerals carried from about 8 and 7^ millions
to 31,684,886 and 26,393,166 respectively. Though the latter numbers are
less than in the case of the North British, the total receipts were somewhat
larger for the Caledonian than for its rival. In 1912 they amounted to
£5,140,822 compared with £1,660,983 in 1864, whilst its paid up capital rose
from 18 million odds to nearly 74 millions.
In mileage the Glasgow and
South-Western is somewhat smaller than the Highland Railway. But it takes
rank after the North British and Caledonian in the extent and value of its
traffic, whilst earlier in date than either. In 1811 the Kilmarnock and
Troon Railway was only about ten miles long. In 1837 an Act was obtained to
connect Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr, the miles being completed in
1840, though, owing to engineering difficulties, the line passed only within
5 miles of Kilmarnock. In 1840 another company, with the cooperation of the
Ayrshire Company, obtained permission to construct a railway to connect
these towns by way of Cumnock and Nithsdale with the Border, and on the
completion of the connections in 1850 the two companies were amalgamated as
the Glasgow and South-Western. In 1805 it absorbed the line from Dumfries to
Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright. From the main line through Renfrew and Ayr
shires a number of branches diverge to Greenock, Ardrossan, Largs, and other
places. From Ayr an extension southwards was made by a separate company to
Dalmellington in 1850 and amalgamated two years later. Another extension by
way of Maybole to Girvan was completed in 1800 and absorbed in 1805, though
the portion between Ayr and Maybole is only leased to and worked by the
company. A further extension from Girvan to Portpatrick, opened in 1870, was
acquired in 1892. Besides the two main lines from Glasgow to Dumfries and
Carlisle, and to Ayr and Portpatrick respectively, with their various
branches, the company is joint owner with the Caledonian of the Glasgow,
Barrhead, and Kilmarnock Railway and a direct route between Edinburgh and
Ayr, via Lanark and Carstairs, over part of its system, was created by the
extension of the Caledonian Lanark-Douglas branch to Muir-kirk. Whilst the
south-western region which it serves is largely agricultural, it derives a
large mineral and goods traffic from the industrial and mining districts of
Renfrew and Ayr shires. It has a considerable share of the Clyde coast
traffic by way of Greenock, and of the express passenger traffic from
Glasgow to England, via Dumfries and Carlisle, and to Ireland, via Ardrossan
or Stranraer. In order to facilitate the through traffic with the North
British, the Glasgow Union Railway, whose shares are held in equal portions
by the two Companies and which unites their lines, was constructed. As the
result of this undertaking, its terminus was transferred in 1870 from Bridge
Street on the south side of the Clyde to the large station at St Enoch's
Square, on the north side of the river. In 1912 its mileage had risen to 400
miles, the number of passengers and the tonnage of minerals and goods
carried to 16,328,321 and 8,842,452, and the receipts to just over two
millions.
The Great North of Scotland
radiates from Aberdeen throughout the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin,
and part of Inverness. The first portion of what ultimately became the Great
North system to be completed was, however, the line from Elgin to
Lossiemouth, which was opened in 1852. It was only in this year that the
construction of the main line northwestwards was begun and four years
elapsed before it was completed as far as Keith. From Keith it was extended
south-westwards for a distance of 48 miles to Craigellachie and later along
the Spey valley to Boat of Garten—101 miles from Aberdeen—which is the
terminus in this direction and where it comes into touch with the Highland
line. From Craigellachie the Morayshire line, which was authorised in 1846
and amalgamated with the Great North in 18S0, provided a connection
northwards to Elgin, from which the coast route, finished in 1886 runs
eastwards along the Moray Firth to Portsoy and then sweeps inland by
Tillynaught to join the main line at Grange, between Keith and Huntly, with
a branch from Tillynaught to Banff. This coast line is now the main through
line by the Great North from Aberdeen to Inverness. Within the limits of
Aberdeenshire there are three main branches from the main line—the Buchan
branch from Dyce to Fraserburgh, completed in 1865, with sub-branches from
Ellon to Cruden Bay, opened in 1897, and from Maud to Peterhead, completed
in 1865; the Don valley branch from Kin to re up the Don to Alford,
completed in 1859; and the Turriff and Macduff branch from Inveiamsie,
completed in 1860. From Aberdeen the Deeside line runs westwards up the Dee
valley to Banchory, Aboyne, and Ballater, to which it was continued in three
successive instalments between 1852 and 1866. In the latter year it was
leased to the Great North, and ten years later amalgamated with it. The
whole system serves a rich agricultural country, with many prosperous
fishing towns and villages along the coast, and its goods traffic consists
mainly of agricultural produce, cattle, dead meat, and fish'. On the Deeside
and Speyside sections there is also a considerable tourist traffic to the
summer resorts in these beautiful Highland valleys. The station at Aberdeen
is jointly owned the Caledonian and has been greatly enlarged in recent
years.
For long its passenger
service was a vexation to the traveller. In the early "eighties" it had no
express trains, and many of them carried both goods and passengers. The
journey from Aberdeen to Elgin, for instance—a distance of 80 miles—took at
least 4>\ hours. During the decade between 1880 and 1890 a marked
improvement took place in the speed of its trains and in its locomotives and
carriages. "The new stock," says Mr Acworth, "would do credit to any line in
Great Britain." In 1912 its total mileage was 838 miles, the number of
passengers carried was over 3£ millions, the goods and mineral traffic
amounted to over 1 million tons, and the receipts to £518,049. The paid up
capital stood at £7,661,825.
The fifth of the great
Scottish railways—the Highland—originated with the opening of the line from
Inverness to Nairn—a distance of 15 miles—in 1855. Three years later it was
extended to Keith by the company bearing the name of the Inverness and
Aberdeen Junction Railway. Another extension was made northwards from
Inverness by the Inverness and Ross-shire Company to Dingwall and
Invergordon between 1861 and 1868, the two companies having been meanwhile
amalgamated. A further extension brought the line to Bonar Bridge, and
thence to Golspie, Helmsdale, Wick, and Thurso by various undertakings which
were amalgamated with the larger company in 1884. Four years earlier the
amalgamation of the Dingwall and Skye line extended its jurisdiction to
Strome Ferry and subsequently to Kyleackin in the west. Meanwhile the
Inverness and Perth Junction Railway from Forres to Dunkeld, to connect with
the Perth and Dunkeld line, opened in 1856, had been sanctioned in 1861. The
distance of 112 miles was completed in 1863 when an amalgamation took place
with the Perth and Dunkeld. Two years later the whole of these northern
lines so far constructed were united under the name of the Highland Railway,
which, in consequence of the additions subsequently made, attained a length
of 507 miles. The most important of these additions was the direct
connection between Aviemore northwestwards across the Findhorn and Nairn
valleys to Inverness, the viaduct across the Nairn river being 600 yards
long, that across the Findhorn 390. The line from Dunkeld to Inverness, via
Aviemore, runs through some of the grandest scenery in the Highlands, and
attains at Drummochter, the pass into the upper Spey valley (1,484 feet) the
highest railway altitude in Great Britain. Owing to the drifting snow in
winter the snow plough is often requisitioned to make a passage through the
drifts off the moors and the mountain sides on to the line in spite of the
double walls of raised sleepers by which it is guarded in many places. A
considerable proportion of its course, however, passes through the fertile
regions bounding the Moray Firth, with its adjuncts the Beauly Firth and the
Cromarty and Dornoch Firths. From Perth onwards its tourist traffic is very
heavy in summer. Next to this traffic, the carriage of sheep, cattle, fish,
timber, and agricultural produce is its mainstay. Though the number of
passengers and the tonnage of goods carried in 1912 were less than those on
the Great North (2 million odds and 600,000 tons odds respectively) the
receipts, £574,590, were considerably larger on a paid up capital of just
under 7 millions.
The statistics relative to
each of the five main Scottish railways 'are very significant of the
progress of railway enterprise in Scotland during the last fifty years. This
progress will appear still more striking from a comparison of the figures
for the whole of them during this period. In 1864 the total mileage amounted
to 1720. In 1912 it had swelled (including the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire
joint line, 82 miles long), to 3,627. The total capital similarly rose from
about 47f millions to close on 185 millions, the number of passengers from
over 20 millions to close on 89 millions, the tonnage of goods and minerals
from nearly 18 millions to nearly 67 millions, the receipts from all sources
from about 3f millions to nearly 18| millions.
A marked feature of Scottish
railway history has been the keen spirit of competition between the various
companies for possession of the traffic in districts in which two or more
lines operate, especially in the central region, in which population and
industry are so largely concentrated. A large part of this history has been
concerned with the battle for predominance or monopoly, and this has been
especially the case with the North British and Caledonian Construction was
long partly dominated by this motive. Happily there is now a tendency to
adopt a more pacific policy, if only in virtue of self interest. The fierce
and reckless competition has proved to be a policy that does not pay, and
agreements of various kinds, such as interchange of railway tickets Where
the railways serve the same towns, have been adopted in order to mitigate
it. Another noteworthy feature has been the amalgamation of local lines by
the larger companies in order to facilitate through traffic between the
larger towns in Scotland itself and between Scotland and England. Hence the
development of the main lines by the eastern, central, and western routes
from the Border to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, to Dundee, Aberdeen, and
Inverness. The result has been a great advance in expeditious travelling and
goods transit. For instance, a passenger can travel from Edinburgh to
Glasgow in about an hour by the North British or the Caledonian, transact
business, and return within a single forenoon. Or, he can leave Edinburgh in
the morning, travel to Aberdeen by the Forth and Tay bridges, in about three
hours and twenty minutes, transact business in the northern city, and be
back in Edinburgh in the late afternoon, or early evening. Still more
wonderful, he can travel to London by a train leaving Edinburgh at 7.45 in
the morning, arrive at 4.10 p.m., transact business in the late afternoon,
and even go to the theatre in the evening, leave London at 11.30, and be
back in Edinburgh at 7.15 in the morning, within the twenty-four hours.
Equally noteworthy has been the improvement in the rolling stock. In 1804
the largest locomotive in full working order weighed about 60 tons. In 1912
the weight had been doubled. Similarly the heaviest carriages weighed 13
tons, were 24 feet long, and rested on four wheels. To-day the dining cars
are 00 feet long, weigh 44 tons, and have six bogie wheels at each end. In
the same interval goods waggons have increased in weight from 5 tons with a
carrying capacity of 6 tons, and 15 feet in length, to 7 tons with a
capacity of 16 tons and a length of 20 feet.
Railway extension as well as
the increase in shipping has given a great impulse to the construction of
docks and harbours. Both the North British and the Caledonian own large
docks in the Firth of Forth—the Caledonian at Grangemouth and South ' Alloa,
the North British at Alloa, Bo'ness, Burntisland, and Methil, which serve as
outlets for the export of coal from the Fife coalfields. The Methil docks
are three in number and cover 271 acres. At Grangemouth the Caledonian built
a new dock in 1876 several acres in extent and 24 feet deep, and in 1906
added a second about 30 acres in extent and about 30 feet deep to cope with
the coal export trade from the Lanarkshire mines. On the west coast there
are railway docks of smaller extent at Ayr, Troon, and Ardrossan.
The development of railway
enterprise adversely affected canal extension in Scotland, and only in the
more inaccessible western region has this form of communication proved of
much service. The Crinan Canal, constructed during the last years of the
eighteenth century at a cost of £100,000, provides expeditious passenger
transit by steamer from the Clyde to Oban. It has long been an important
highway for summer tourist traffic, but I is unsuited for the passage of
cargo steamers of any size. For this purpose it would require to be enlarged
and the project of improving it has been pressed in recent years in the
interest of trade between Glasgow and the Western Highlands. "The Canal,"
urges the County Council of Argyll, " is situated on the shortest, most
direct, and most sheltered route between the Clyde and Western Highlands;
but on account of its insufficiency that route is not available for the
larger vessels that provide modern means of transit. . . . The construction
of a Crinan Ship Canal, available at all states of tide, and capable of
passing expeditiously the largest steamer trading to the Highlands, would be
of the very greatest benefit to the district by cheapening and accelerating
communication with Clyde ports. And the bringing of the entire district into
closer touch with, and 85 miles nearer to, its southern market, would do
much to arrest the serious depopulation now in progress, and would greatly
help to develop new industries."
In 1773 James Watt prepared
plans for the construction of a canal through Glenmore—the great strath that
runs northeastwards from Loch Linnhe to the Moray Firth—to provide a through
passage for large vessels from the Atlantic to the North Sea and vice versa.
Hi^ estimate of £165,000 was deemed too formidable to be faced by the
projectors, and nearly thirty years elapsed before the project was resumed.
In 1803 the work was begun under the direction of the engineers Telford and
Jessop, and in 1822 it was opened at a cost of £885,000. It was finally
completed in 1843-47 and cost £1,311,270. Though in ordinary times it
carries a considerable goods and tourist traffic and during the war proved
serviceable as a line of communication with the American naval base at
Inverness, it has failed to become a highway for deep sea vessels between
the eastern and the western seas. The idea of providing such a waterway has
recently taken the form of a project to construct a new canal between the
Forth and the Clyde. The deepening of the present canal is deemed
impracticable on account of the 90 feet summit which would involve the
construction of at least six locks—three at either end —by which to lift the
largest battleships and steamers. Moreover the deepening of the Clyde at
Yoker, across the tide, to at least 86 feet and the maintenance of the
channel is regarded as another insuperable objection. The advocates of the
proposed deep sea canal, therefore, prefer a new route from Grangemouth via
Stirling, Loch Lomond, and Loch Long, which would maintain the Loch Lomond
level all through, and would require only one 21 feet lock at either end.
The estimated cost—20 millions —is very formidable. But its supporters point
to the fact that Germany spent an equally large sum in the construction of
the canal between Kiel and the mouth of the Elbe, and that the Manchester
Ship Canal cost £17,000,000. In support of the expenditure of this large sum
they adduce the commercial and strategical advantages which would accrue
from such a waterway. It would, they contend, greatly add to the mobility of
the Fleet by ensuring the rapid transfer of war vessels from the North Sea
to the Atlantic and vice versa, and would bring the Naval Base at Rosyth
into touch with the repairing yards on the Clyde. It would thus materially
add to the national safety. It would, moreover, provide a much shorter route
between the ports of the east and the west coasts and between those of the
north of Europe and the north Atlantic. The canal would thus have the double
advantage of serving important strategical and commercial ends, and
commercial ends that the traffic returns and the impulse given to the trade
of the ports affected by it would more than compensate for the initial
capital outlay. Despite these sanguine deductions the scheme, like the
Channel Tunnel, has not yet got beyond the stage of discussion, though the
arguments in its favour appear to be worthy of serious consideration. |
