A 1919 scheme linking North Woolwich and Beresford Square, Woolwich, under the River Thames also failed. In 1922 he proposed an ambitious solution to the problem of crossing Sydney Harbour by rail with a Kearney Tube. In 1923, Kearney produced a proposal for a line linking Howard Street, North Shields and Palatine Street, South Shields under the River Tyne, which achieved strong public support. Kearney applied for a Light Railway Order in November 1925, and the Minister for Transport granted a Provisional Order for the line, but the Conformation Bill was rejected at the Committee stage on opposition from Tynemouth Corporation. A later proposal by Kearney for a line linking the railway stations of each town in 1939, promoted in conjunction with the London & North Eastern Railway, failed due to the onset of World War II. Before and during the War, Kearney lobbied for underground lines in several British cities, including Leeds (where plans advanced as far as discussions with the Council), that were designed with longitudinal benches and the bottom rail flush with the floor, so that the tunnels could be used as air-raid shelters. Issues included that the design of the system, with stations close to the surface, presented a risk to shelterers in an air-raid, and the general lack of funds in wartime Britain. The Kearney High-Speed Tube was an untried and untested technology, and no-one was prepared to run the risk of adopting his system. None of his schemes ever made it past the drawing board and the Kearney Tube idea faded away. Kearney was an active promoter of monorail technology, publishing leaflets and giving lectures on the subject, and wrote a book, "Rapid Transit in the Future: the Kearney High-Speed Railway" (1911). He later wrote a utopian science fiction novel, "Erone" (1943), which attempted to popularise the idea of monorail transport.