A PUZZLED PASSENGER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 8

A PUZZLED PASSENGER.

CRAZY TRAM ROUTES. "After being in Auckland three months I thought I knew the place fairly well, but it seems I don't know anything about the tram service. Instead of getting home from Queen Street for 2d this afternoon, it cost mc 9d, and I spent nearly an hour in the process!" This remark was made yesterday to a "Star" representative by a businessman who resides at the top of Khyber Pass.

"I knew that Epsom cars usually pro- 1 coed from Queen Street via Anzac Avenue, so I boarded one labelled 'Epsom Depot. At the junction it went straight on towards Parnell, not going up the bill as I .had expected. I caught a car back to Queen Street, and there boarded an Onehunga car. I'm safe this time, I thought, this goes up Queen Street. But it didn't! No, it went round the corner into Customs Street. I remained in the car thinking that it would go up Anzac Avenue, but again I was disillusioned. It went through Parnell so, annoyed yet wiser, I went right on to Newmarket and took a car from there to the top of Symonds Street!"

| "Now, Fvfc travelled a bit in my day. i and ridden on trams in many places, but I Auckland is the last word in the way of confusion. Nobody seems to know which route a tram will take. Dominion Road cars don't always go via Wellesley Street, and my experience shows that Onehunga trams sometimes take the Parnell route, instead of Upper Queen Street. Why there is not some system of numbering the routes, irrespective of destination, I don't know. That an Epsom ear should go via Anzac Avenue and ap Epsom Depot car through Parnell is an idiosyncrasy which only a lifelong Aucklaqder can be expected to grasp! I have given up the problem, and during rush hours in future I can expect nothing better than a 50-50 chance of getting to the top of Symonds Street by the quickest and least expensive method."