THE JOURNAL OF U THE LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SOCIETY Issue No. 87 Volume 8 No. 3 March 1969 N OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE VICTORIA LINE The Victoria Li ne will be officially ope ned by Her Majesty the Queen on Fri day 7t h March at D 11.00. Her Majesty will drive t o Green Park Station where the opening Ceremony wi ll take place at about 11.20 following an inspection of the station; a special train will then convey E the Royal party to Oxford Circus Station? wh i ch will also be toured, after wh i ch the t rain will take the party t o Victoria where a Reception wi l l R be held ending at about 13.00. THE PRESIDENCY 1968/69 At the AGM our present Vi ce-Pr es i dent, C.R.L.Coles will become the new Pres i dent of G the Society. Mr. Coles is a very well-known railway photographer, and his Yl ame is prominent not only in railway enthusiast circles, but i n the photographic world as well. During a life-time R devoted to his hobby he has gone int o f i lming as well as taking innumerable still photographs, so that in him we have a real expert in an aspect of our interests which is of great importance to us o all and a personal interest of many. To fill the vacancy in the Vice-Presidency we have been fortunate in obtaining the services U of Norman E.W.Fuller - about whom it is difficult to write very much because he, and his work for the Society, are s o well known to our members . Also a keen photographer, and an expe r t on N District Rolling Stock, it was Norman who first thought of the idea of a Society in 1961, was its first Secretary, is now Librarian and has been continuously a Committee member or an D officer (or both!) since the inaugural meeting. 33 34 THE LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SOCIETY REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR 1968 The Society has had another successful year, NOTIC marked by some especially good papers read to the the S meetings at Hammersmith, some from members and others Room, from outside speakers. The number of vists has been on Sa kept about the same as in previous years and the pol­ follo icy of including an occasional out-of-London visit has been followed again during the year under review. Library Evenings have continued throughout the year and have proved popular; our gratitude is extended to Norman Fuller, who as Librarian has regularly thrown open his house once a month for the benefit of members. The year has been marked by an unusual number of changes in Committee members, Officers and Assistant Offioers; to all those who have devoted their time and energy to the furtheranoe of the Society's aims the Committee would express their thanks, at the same time welcoming those who are new to offioe. Financially, 1968 was a muoh better year than 1967, and it will be seen that the excess of inoome over expenditure for the year was about £27, despite an increase in the total oosts of Journal production and despatch. This result has been achieved principally by a considerable increase in the profits achieved on Furth sales and reflects considerable credit on all those oonoerned; an additional service first made available Nomin to members during 1968 was the supply of photographic to th film and recording tape at reduced prices; it is reach that expected that as this service beoomes better known it five will add yet more profits to the sales results. Davis Rule Membership remained almost static during the year, to th whioh is a matter of some regret to the Committee, as with with an inoreased number of members better faoilities for r could be provided. Repor By Order Of The Committee for 1 J.P.Wirth, Secretary. THE LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SOCIETY 35 NOT ICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING NOTICE is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Society for the year 1969 will be held in the Lecture Room, Museum of British Transport, Clapham, London, S.W.4. on Saturday 29th March 1969 at 14.00 for 14.30, for the following purposes:­ To have Read the Notice of Meeting and the Report of the Auditors. To Receive the Report of the Committee for the year 1968. To Receive the Accounts for the year 1968. To Confirm the Election of C.R.L.Coles as the Pre­ sident of the SOCiety. To Confirm the Election of Norman E.W.Fuller as the Vice-President of the Society. To Elect Five Members of the Committee. To Elect Auditors. To Conduct Any other Business. 17. Garth Road, By Order of the Committee Sevenoaks, J.P.Wirth Kent, Secretary 29th January 1969. Further Notes on the AGM Nominations to the Committee Nominations should be sent to the Secretary at 17, Garth Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, to reach him by 15th March; before nominating please ascertain that the member nominated is willing to serve. There are five places to be filled this year; J. Brook Smith, P.R. Davis and S.E.Jones retire by rotation in accordance with Rule 5 i and J.M.Growhurst and K.A.Harris, who were co opted to the Committee during the past year, retire in accordance with Rule 6, All these members are willing to stand for re-election, except J. Brook Smith. Report and Accounts. The Report of the Committee for 1968 appears in this issue of the Journal, but Accounts will not be circulated to save expense; enc they will, of course be available at the Meeting in accordance with the Rules. h~ Admission to the Meeting. To gain admission to the be Museum without payment, present your current (1969) membership Card at the barriers at any time after 13.45; membership cards must be shown again to enter ex1 the Lecture Room where the meeting is to be held. gO( of 1 ASPECTS OF UNDERGROUND RAILWAY DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT al: thl Desmond F. Croome ch< fi: Being The President's Address For 1968 la' 3 to an Of The Lines paJ in, is The word "alignment" embraces two concepts go the traffic objectives between whioh the line shall bu de run, and the precise routeing of the tracks between of the major objectives. The former is decided largely ra by the traffic planners, on Jeremy Bentham's princi­ Ii ple of "the greatest happiness of the greatest num­ mi ber" whilst the latter is largely a question for the an civil engineers, although in planning a line, there th must be continuous oonsultation between the two sections. in It is unusual to plan a rapid-transit line in me "Virgin Country" although some instances have been te known, e.g. in the southern suburbs of Stockholm, as where town planning went hand-in-hand with railway Sj planning, or on the northern half of the Piccadilly m1. Line Cockfosters extension, or the Northern Line EI Edgware extension, where it was hoped that private Ii enterprise building would follow the railway. In tl such cases, it is basically a question of calculating S( the prospeotive population and estimating how much traffio this will generate, so that the line stops at the "boundary of viability" and each station has 37 enough traffic, but not too much. However, a more typical case is where the city has already developed, and a rapid transit line must be fitted into the existing pattern. As with the southern half of the Cockfcrst'ers extension, or the Manchester rapid transit lineta good guide to passenger needs is the relative volume of bus or tram traffic along the possible alternative alignments, although it must always be borne in mind that passengers on public transport are obliged to choose from the facilities that exist. Planning the first line of a rapid transit network may seem a re­ latively simple exercise, but there are many factors to be considered. It may be necessary to conduct an "Origin and destination" survey of bus and car passengers to supplement the evidence of bus load­ ings and car counts; the correct spacing of stations is of vital importance, and will be discussed later; good interchange facilities are essential, both with buses, cars and the main line railways; a suitable depot site must be found within reasonable proximity of the proposed line; a tentative plan for the whole rapid transit network must exist, so that the first line will fit in with later construction with the minimum alteration; planned highway improvements and anticipated population movements must be known, and their effects assessed. Where a new line must be grafted on to an exist­ ing rapid transit network, the exercise becomes even more complex, because the likely effect of each al­ ternative routeing on each existing line must be assessed so that the new line will help the whole system to mbve towards the elusive ideal of "not too much, not too little traffic" on each secti.on. Engineering factors are more important, as the new line must be threaded between the existing ones, so that cross-platform interchange may be possible at some stations but not at others. 38 Finally? how much traffic is needed to justify best the I a rapid transit line at all? Traffic flow can be nego· expressed in various ways - passengers per peak hour, to rl per day or per year.