TRAMWAY TRAFFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 65, 17 March 1915, Page 6

TRAMWAY TRAFFIC.

GOVERNMENT CONTROL. LIMITING THE PASSENGERS. (By Telegraph- Press Association.) WELLINGTOX, Tuesday. Xcw regulations for the control of electric tramway traflic throughout the Dominion have been drawn up by the Public Works Department. The principal regulation, which relates to overcrowding, requires the authorities to carry only a given number of passengers ill each car, the number for each type of car to lie determined later. This is a matter which -will give most of the municipal councils, owning electric tramways, some concern. If the regulation as submitted is insisted upon, Wellington will have to increase the number of cars a.t once, and more plant will have to be installed at tbe powerhouse, and more lioosters will be required to feed the suburban lines. Tbe position in regard to car building at present is interesting, and should be borne in mind when the new regulations are being considered. The Wellington City Council at present has a number of car bodies completed, but is unable to put them on the track, as there are no wheels available. The contractors -who supply the under-truoks and motors do not, as a rule, provide the wheels. Hitherto these have been turned out in quite a wholesale way by Krupps, but that source of 6upply has now gone. A fine not exceeding £20 is provided for the offence of carrying a greater numlicr of passengers than specified in the regulations. Another propiwal is that gangways shall be provided between all ears forming part of a train of cars, as in a case in which an electric car draws one or more trailers. This particularly affect* Christohureh. where, it is pointed out, there are many more curves in the tramway lines than there are in any similar mileage of railway lines, and the curves being of a much smaller radius, the gangiwayr., it is contended, would simply sweep tbe ends of the cars in rounding the curves, and would be very dangerous to the travelling public, without providing any greater margin of Safety for the conductors.