Or... a privately built
Carveyor system
CONSIDERABLE significance has been attached to the omission from the budget speech of Hong Kong's financial secretary, Sir John Cowperth- waite, of any mention of the proposed rapid transit system for the colony.
The report of the consulting en-
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gineers on an underground system is at present being considered by Govern- ment before being made public, and the conclusion has been drawn in the local press that the Government is un- willing to face the enormous cost of such a project.
As cars leave the station they pass over accelerator wheels that increase their speed to 15 miles an hour for travel between stations. Decelerator wheels slow inbound cars to the station speed for passenger exit.
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If this is true then there is likely to be growing support for a proposal now being advanced by the Hutchison Group. This envisages the granting of a franchise by Government to private enterprise for the construction of a passenger conveyor system. The fran- chise would follow similar lines to the one let for build Hong Kong's cross- harbour tunnel.
The system which the group puts forward is one developed by the Good- year Tire & Rubber Co. of America. It is called the Carveyor. Agents for the system in the colony are Hutchison subsidiary, Gordon Woodruffe & Co. (FE) Ltd., whose technical director, Mr. George Ko reports the Govern- ment is 'certainly interested'."
The major advantages of this sys- tem, Mr. Ko points out, are that, given a site, it could be operational in two years at an overall cost of US$5-7 mil- lion a mile. Against this, an under- ground system could not be started in under four years, even if the go ahead were given now, and the cost would probably be some US$20 million a mile.
Continuous service
The Carveyor system is a refined version of systems used at Disneyland, Los Angeles and at Expo '70. It is fully automatic and has as its out- standing feature the elimination of all waiting or rushing to catch a train. before it leaves the station.
A passenger enters a station and steps onto a loading-platform belt that is slowly moving, usually at 132 fpm, which is about half the average walk- ing speed. Moving at the same speed on a parallel conveyor belt are a num- ber of small cars, the size of which is governed by the desired capacity of the system. These cars would be simi- lar in size to a modern elevator car. Each car would be provided with seats so that, except for a few standees
Far East BUILDER, March 1971