THE SHORTAGE OF TRAMCARS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 171, 19 July 1907, Page 3

THE SHORTAGE OF TRAMCARS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The action of the employees of the Tramway Company in refusing to carry more than the licensed number of passengers, has indeed made the overcrowding situation more acute. This apparently infers that hitherto the bylaws in this respect have been violated. It is now proposed that this law shall be suspended for a period to cope with the present position of affairs, thus allowing the company a lease to continue as they like. It is to be hoped that matters as they are now will so annoy and arouse the people of Auckl-and that stringent remedial steps will have to be taken. Up to the present the Council have been painfully impotent under the hypnotic influence of the Tramway Company to deal properly and finally with the j over-crowding situation. It is too humorous of the Mayor to suggest that a petty half-dozen cars this year, and a few more next year will suffice. What with the opening of new sections and the growth of population demands a continuous increase in the rolling stock of the company. To show the state of things, last year Auckland carried 21,104,651 passengers with 56 cars. In Qardifi they had 130 cars to carry 24,127,641 passengers. Judging by the published statement of the City Engineer, our system carries more passengers per car than any other system. Nothing like the same condition of affairs exists in the southern cities. Being owned by the municipalities, the Councils- have either to provide' enough cars or give place to men who can carry out the wishes of the citizens. The number of people killed and injured on our system will compare unfavourably with other towns. The rate of speed is, I understand, greater than in any other part of the world. One wonders if it would not pay the citizens for the Council to acquire the tramway system if that were possible. The time will come, if it has not already arrived, -when the citizens of this fair city will rue the day they ever gave the tramway franchise to a foreign company.—Yours; etc., ~ CITIZEN.