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Commuters give Gautrain the thumbs up

10 June 2010

Hundreds of Johannesburg residents who boarded the Gautrain on is first commercial run on Tuesday have given the high speed train the thumbs up.

Passengers, who were among the first to board the train which began operations on Tuesday told BuaNews they were elated. “I haven’t been on a train since I was 17-years-old and all I can say is that the train is out of this world – it shows that the country has come a long way since 1994,” said Samatha Cone, 52.

She said the train arrived and departed on time, and that there were many “helpful, friendly” ushers and security guards everywhere who directed passengers to where they needed to be.

A gallery of photos of the launch of the Gautrain are available on the MediaClubSouthAfrica website.

Better than traffic’
The train began operations between Sandton and OR Tambo International Airport since 5:30am on Tuesday morning and about 11 000 passengers are believed to have taken their first ride.

Thomas Malikeke, who works at the OR International Airport, said “It’s better than sitting in traffic on the highway. At least you know you won’t be late.”

Some passengers did not even realise they were travelling at 160 kilometres an hour.

“Wow! It was absolutely amazing!” said a palpably excited Amanda Nykiza, while another passenger commented that it “was stunning inside.”

Bombela CEO Jerome Govender described the first day of operations as “fantastic”. He said he was “delighted and relieved” that things were running smoothly.

Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane also got on board and for her it was “an emotional experience.” The premier was among the first passengers to board the express train.

Mokonyane was joined by Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele, Gauteng provincial Transport Minister Bheki Nkosi and Gautrain project CEO Jack van der Merwe.

Mokonyane urged people using the train to celebrate its opening, but cautioned against expectations of perfection on day one. “We must just say it is here, we can feel it, we can touch it, we are in it,” Mokonyane said.

Teething problems
However, there were some minor problems, like the ticket vending machines at various stations which experienced problems, working only intermittently.

“We want to apologise to any passenger we inconvenienced when we had these intermittent problems. We must allow the system to prime over the next week,” said Govender.

Source: BuaNews

Icebergs in the Atlantic
Every ship from Europe brings accounts of an unusual quantity of
icebergs in the Atlantic. It is probable that the north-westerly winds which have prevailed in this latitude to such an extraordinary degree this winter, have raged also in the Arctic circle, have set the ice fields in motion earlier than common, and have filled the Atlantic with drifting bergs and pack.
The origin of these ice-mountains was long a subject of controversy. By some persons the berg was thought to be the result of months of freezing in the open sea. By others it was more correctly attributed to a land origin. Dr. Kane, the historian of the late American expedition, has proved conclusively by observation on the spot, that the iceberg has a similar origin with the glacier, being deposited on the sides and in the valleys of Arctic mountains, and afterwards pushed forward exactly as glaciers are, down the slope and along the gorge. As these valleys eventually open to the sea, the field of ice is finally protruded into the water, where a part breaks off, at last, by its own weight, and is floated away. The early namigators, seeing these enormous masses, called them in their native tongue, “bergs,” or mountains, and by that name they have been known ever since.
Not unfrequently large masses of rock, which are frozen up in the glacier on land, are borne off with the iceberg. As the berg melts, they drip away, and sink to the bottom of the sea. Geologists tell us that the huge bowlders, which are often seen in the interior of this continent, hundreds of miles away from primitive formations of a similar character, were thus transported, at some far distant period, when most of America was still a vast ocean. In melting, the bergs often assume the most fantastic shapes. Some look like floating towns, with towers, pinnacles, and forts. Some bear the shape of gigantic castles. Some recall the fairy descriptions of the Arabian Nights. The temperature of the water being lower than that of the atmosphere, they melt at the bottom faster than at the top, and finally turn over, convulsing the deep for an immense circle around, and imperilling ships that happen to be near.
The play of light on these bergs is, at times indescribably beautiful. At other times however the ice-mountains move surrounded with fog, the offspring of their own evaporation; and on such occasions woe to the mariner who is not warned in time of the damp mist he sees settling down around. After traversing our eastern coasts, and assisting to make our springs later than those on the Pacific side, the bergs are melted down by the gulf stream, or borne off, in greatly-reduced bulks to the coast of Ireland, where they disapperar forever.

Railroad to the Pacific – The Grand Trunk
Mr. Walter Shanley, well known as a Canadian Engineer to the Directors of the Port Huron and Michigan Railroad Company, has presented his report to that Company. The report is not yet printed, but the following is an extract from it, for which we are indebted to the Montreal Hearld, which paper says: – ” The object of this Company, it may be shortly stated, is to cross the State of Michigan in a line wich shall be the extension of our own Grand Trunk, eastward from its termination at Fort Sarnia. It may not be uninteresting to Canadians, who feel pride in believing their fellow countrymen equal to any enterprise, to learn at once, that not only the survey for this project has been made by a fellow-countryman; but that the whole work has been contracted for by the Canadian firm of Holton, McPherson, Galt and Gzowski. TGhe extract froom the reeport is as follows:
“I have stated,” says Mr. Shanley, “that the eastern starting point of te contemplated road, is opposite to Port Sarnia, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and separated from it by but half-a-mile of water. Running your finger along directly opposite to the other extremity of the route, and distant from it by the width of Lake Michigan (85 miles) stands Milwaukie, already noticed as the commercial metropolis of the Great State of Wisconsin, and now numbering a population of 30,000, which judging from past progress, is certain to be doubled within four years, a certain criterion of the magical growth of civilized communities in the Far West. We would here beg leave to refer you to the map of the United States and Canada, and to direct your attention to the route of the Grand Trunk Railway, from Portland, in the State of Maine, to Montreal, thence following the banks of the St. Lawrence to Toronto, from Toronto in a general westerly direction to Sarnia, at which point you are close under the 43rd parallel of latitude. Near the parallel, westward, you will find Port Huron, Grand Haven, Milwaukie, points in the same leading line from Lake Ontario to the broad west: and still pursuing it beyond Milwaukie farther towards the Pacific, you reach the great Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien.–Beyond is spread out the immense State of Iowa and the vast Minesota territory, inviting millions to fix their homes upon these smiling prairies, to cultivate for the benefit of mankind the teeming soil that till yesterday was in undisputed possession of Nomadic tribes of Indians and countless herds of Buffalo. From Prairie du Chien, the Mississippi is navigable downwards 1,500 miles to the Guelph of Mexico; upwards of 160 miles to St Paul’s, at the falls of St. Anthony, to which point steamers are daily plying during the season of navigation. Milwaukie has a Railway in operatiuon half-way to Prairie du Chien; the whole distance will be completed in less than two years and though we have travelled due west 450 miles from Sarnia before reaching the Mississippi, we are still scarcely more than on the threshold of the far west, which like the mirage of its prairies ever seems to recede before the traveller bewildered with the immensity and fertile sameness of the regions that suuround him. With a long route from the west, terminating at Milwaukie and the gigantic Trunk Line of Canada terminating at Sarnia, a link between the two, such as the Norther Michigan road would be, must command an immense through travel, nor need the break in the chain caused by the crossing of Lake Michigan, be looked upon as detrimental to the interests of such a line. * * * * The traveller from beyond the Mississippi, weary of a long day passed in the Railway carriage, will joyfully hail a sunset view of the clear waters of Lake Michigan, and the porspect of a night’s rest on board the steamer awaiting him in the Harbour of Milwaukie. He awakens next morning to take his seat in the train for Port Sarnis, where he arrives at 10 A.M., and at 3 P.M. of the same day finds himself in Toronto, where if he be travelling for pleasure, as many thousands from the South and West do in the summer, he may again take the water for the sake of enjoying the scenery of the St. Lawrence. The man of business bound for the Atlantic coast or Europe will keep upon the rail to Montreal and Portland.
The whole distance thus brought into the most direct communication with this city, is westward to Prairie du Chien, nine hundred and fifty-eight miles, eastward to Portland two hundred and ninety; in all twelve hundred and forty eight. This distance is thus divided, viz: Prairie du Chien to Milwaukie 160 miles; Milwaukie per Steamer to Grand Haven 85 miles; Grand Haven to Port Sarnia, 202 miles; Port Sarnia to Toronto, 168 miles; Toronto to Montreal, 243 miles; Montreal to Portland 290 miles; or to Quebec 180.
Mr. Shanley has so compiled the statement of the capabilities of the road to remunerate its projectors, as to put us in possession of facts, in themselves, of no slight importance. It appears from them that the Northern Michigan Railroad is the third parellel road crossing the Michigan peninsular,–that the two existing lines, the southern and the central, run within a territory of only some 35 miles of latitude, while the rest of the state to the northward of the latter, will of course be wholly tributary to the Norhtern road, at least till other competing lines are established. Notwithstanding the comparative smallness of the territory pierced by the Southern and Central roads, and the division of the business between the rival routes, the Central has paid dividends of 14 per cent, and never less than 8, and the Southern of 12 per cent. Of the revenues, the largest portion is derived from through traffic, 70 per cent of those of the Central Michigan arising from that source and that the Northern will not be behind on this score may be easily conjectured from the fact that the eight counties through which the latter will pass have increased in population from 14,418 in 1834, to 65,904 in 1850.
65,904 in 1850. In the same localities the valuation of real estate has increased from 1851 to 1853 by no less a sum than $13,283,433. As coal, gypsum and pine timber are all to be found upon the line of the railway, all more or less, as our French friends say, exploites, it is not too much to expect that the country will afford as large a revenue per head as the tracts of the State of New England, New York, and the Southern part of Michigan through which other roads run. The estimate founded on experience of these roads $3 per head. This in 1858, would give a revenue from local traffic of $705,000. Mr. Shanley assumes that the Northern will command at least as considerable a through traffic as the Central Michigan in close proximity to a powerful rival; and taking that as his basis of addition to the local traffic, he arrives at the annual gross revenue of $1,277,500, or net revenue of $662,625, or 8 1/4 per cent, on the outlay of $8,000,000, which will be the cost of the road at $40,000 per mile.

May 4, 1854

The Grand Trunk Railroad
The following, intended for the information of the British public, is taken from a late number

of the London Morning Advertiser; Montreal feb. 20

I promised, in my last weeks communication, to forward you a few particulars with

reference to the Grand Trunk Railroad, its progress, and its prospects, feeling assured, from

the English correspondence I have received on the subject, that this vast undertaking is watched

in the British metropolis with much interest, and if possible, more in a social than commercial

point of view. It is at this moment totally impossible to predict the changes and consequent

benefits to the colony which the running of this line will accomplish,spanning as it does the

whole length of the two provinces, besides providing an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean for the

produce of the Western States, which now as a great measure finds its way through its southern

neighbor’s territories.

I am well aware that in the midst of the present political difficulties, it is

no easy task to discuss the question of social improvement, whether at home or in the colonies;

but I am equally alive to the fact, that when war does break out – which now appears inevitable,

and which even threatens an immediate outburst, – there will be thousands of persons who will at

once withdraw their Continental investments to deposit them in some other and safer

security. To what point of the globe, then will they turn to find so great a desideratum as a

safe investment in these times of approaching war. Certainly not the Eastern side of the

Atlantic. America then, and that of British North America, must be most naturally pointed at as

being the oasis in the desert. Here a thousand different works are being pushed on with vigor,

which, when completed, will yield to their supporters a far higher rate of premium than has been

obtained for similar securties in the Old Country for many years past.

And amongst others I would certainly place the Grand Trunk Railroad as the first on the

list. To give an idea of the vastness of this work, I may mention that it engrosses the traffic

of a region extending 800 miles in one direct line, from Portland to Lake Huron containing a

population of nearly three million in Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. And before

proceeding further, it would be well to observe that it is for the whole of its length,

protected from possibility of injurious competetion not only by Legislative enactment but by

what is of greater security against rail lines – viz: natural causes. To continue then at

Portland, it connects with the system of railways reaching eastward to the Province of New

Brunswick, and hereafter to Halifax in Nova Scotia, as well as southward, by lines already

existing to Boston and New York. At the frontier of Canada it again unites with other lines to

Boston and the great manufacturing districts of New England. From Richmond it runs eastward to

Quebec and Trois Pistoles, 253 miles giving direct access to the great shipping port of Canada

in summer; and hereafter by rail to the Atlantic at Halifax, by Trois Pistoles and Mirimichi,

forming the only route to the great fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the eastern

timber, coal, and mineral district of New Brunswick. At Montreal it again meets three railways

now in operation to Boston and New York. At Prescott it receives the tributary line from Bytown

and the vast timber districts of the Ottawa, 60 miles, now in course of early completion; and on

the opposite side of the St. Lawrence, the Northern New York road to Ogdensburgh will pour its

stream of passenger traffic upon the trunk line. At Kingston the Rome and Cape Vincent Railroad,

also from New York, becomes its tributary. From thence to Toront it receives the entire produce

of the rich country north of Lake Ontario through the channels of the Belleville and

Peterborough branches, and several other new lines already in progress of construction, and all

tributary to the main trunk road. At Toronto the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railroad, 100 miles,

now nearly finished, pours off the traffic of the region around Lake Simcoe and the Georgian

Bay. At the same point is also met the Great Western Railway, by Hamilton to Detroit, 240 miles,

now in a forward state of completion, by which communication is had with the southern part of

Western Canada, as well as with the railways in operation from Detroit to the States of

Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. From Toronto westward, the line passing through the heart of

the western penninsula of Canada insures to the Grand Trunk the exclusive traffic of the finest

part of the province; while at its terminus at Sarnia it debouches at the very outlet of Lake

Huron, avoiding the Shallows of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers below — a point the most

favorably situated for the navigation extending through the Lakes Huron and Michigan, and

hereafter through Lake Superior. At Sarnia the American railroads now in course of construction

place the Grand Trunk Line in the most direct communication with the arterial lines to the Great

West and the Mississippi, a region whose advance in population and wealth has been regarded as

almost fabulous, and yet whose resources are still very partially developed; while the traffic

of the copper and iron districts of Lake Superior, the most valuable and extensive in the world;

with the coal ov Michigan, will accumulate on the railroad at this point, reaching ocean and

navigation at Montreal in much less time; and by the same milage, than it can now pass by boat

to the waters of Lake Ontario, 350 miles above that city. It will therefore be seen that the

road commencing at the debouchure of the three largest lakes in the world, pours the

accumulating traffic in one unbroken line throughout the entire length of Canada, into the St.

Lawrence at Montreal and Quebec, on which it rests at the north, while on the south it reaches

the magnificent harbors of Portland and St. John’s on the open ocean. The whole future traffic

between the western regions and the east, including Lower Canada parts of the States of Vermont

and New Hampshire, the whole of the State of Maine and the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova

Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island and Newfoundland, must, therefore, pass over the Grand Trunk

Railroad.
Another feature in connection with the road, and which cannot fail to produce summer

traffic, will be the Montreal Victoria Tubular Bridge, which, when, erected, will be the

greatest achievement of engineering skill yet accomplished on either side of the Atlantic. Thus

far have I endeavered to give a faint outline of the country this line is to be carried through.
Its contractors are Messers. Pete, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson; its Directors are some

of the first men in Canada; in London its Directors are |Messers. Baring, Glyn, McCalmont,&c.,;

and its managers are Sir C.P. Roney, Mr. Alexander Ross, and Mr. S.P. Bidder, men who have been

engaged for the last 20 years either in the construction or management of railroads. Having

this much of the prospects of the unfinished portions of the road, I have now to draw your

attention to the section which is at present open and working, and also to the sections which

will be opened in the ensuing spring. The line at present open extends from Montreal to

Portland a distance of nearly 300 miles; and in the course of a couple of months the line

between Montreal and Quebec will be completely finished. It is right to remark that had it not

been for the disastrous shipwrecks of last autumn, this road would have been opened last year;

but as four vessels, which were laden with iron for the bridges &c., along the road, went to the

bottom of the sea, the delay could not be avoided. I am given to understand that already

contracts have been entered into for the conveyance of the enormous amount of two hundred

thousand superficial feet of timber daily from one district alone.

April 13, 1854
Canadian Grand Trunk Railway

A very large emigration of masons,carpenters, quarry men, engine drivers, engine fitters and

other artisans, is taking place for this railway. Between four and five hundred have already

left England, and all the third class accomodation in the canadian Serew Company’s vessels which

leave Liverpool this and the next month has been secured by the contractors for these men. Great

numbers are seeking this employment, tempted partly by the high wages offered,(in many cases

double what they receive in England and Scotland,) and partly by the comparative cheapness of

provisions in Canada, and the certainty of every industrious man becoming a possessor of land

within a very few years. Arrangements have likewise been made for sending out large drafts of

“navvies” and other laborers in sailing vessels during the spring. Constant employment has been

guaranteed by the contractors to steady men for five years. The passage money of those who

cannot pay it, as well as of their wives and children, is defrayed for them, on condition of the

men being under stoppage of a shilling a-day each until the debt is liquidated. This is a light
infliction, inasmuch as the lowest rate of pay for inskilled labor is 4s, and it ranges up to 8s

and 10s a day for mechanics and artizans. If the conduct of these latter has been good during

twelve months after arrival, each is to receive a bonus of £2, and under similar circumstances a

laborer is to receive £1. Herepath’s Journal.