RAIL-LESS TRAMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 81, 5 April 1923, Page 8

RAIL-LESS TRAMS.

NO COSTLY TRACK TO KEEP UP. TRIED OUT IX BIRMINGHAM. A HINT FOR AUCKLAND. Thousands and thousands of pounds costs of maintenance are being spent every year by the City Council on its tram tracks. Even then some of Uk roadways—Broadway in Newmarket fot instance—leave much to be desired Every extension of the system means thousands and thousands of pounds for excavating the roadway a long way below the depth for the ordinary thoroughfare, thousands and thousands ol pounds for sleepers, rails, costly crossovers and all the other paraphernalia of the present method. In some of the new extensions that are inevitable in the i near future would it not be worth while trying the comparatively cheap and inexpensive system of trackless or rather railless trams, such as the goahead city of Birmingham has just inaugurated and which has now been running with success for several months t The idea is not by any means new in the Old Country, as raillcse cars are running in Leeds, Bradford, York and Middlesborough. A good place for making an experiment in Auckland would be the proposed extension towards Point CTievaj licr. to link up the newly-established Zoo witli the tramway system. There is a stretch of roadway there that could be put in sufficiently good order with tarred macadam to thoroughly try out the railless car system, and even if the system did not prove a success, the loss would be infinitesimal. But Birmingham has found instead of a loss, a most marked saving. Tried on what is called the Xechclls route, the experiment of substituting these vehicles for the old tramcars and avoiding costly track reconstruction saved the corporation a lump sum of £54,000. Birmingham's fleet are the first railless double-deckers in England, and each one carrying 51 passengers, they do the trip quicker nnd provide more comfortable travelling than tlie old cars. Naturally the system was much discussed in Birmingham before it was inaugurated; some of the critics prophesying that car —or bus, for that is the better name—would never be able to maintain contact with the overhead wire. In actual practice, however, it has been found that the buses can keep a very straight course. Although they have no right to a particular part of the roadway as the oldI fashioned tramcars have, the new buses have in actual practice been able to keep a very straight course. Many people thought that having to give and take with the rest of the traffic they would be '"all over the street." Here again it has been found that the drivers of other vehicles arc much more disposed to give way to a railless tram than was at first supposed. These free-lance buses of Uirmingham, as they might be called, find it easy to thread their way through the traffic and still keep contact with the overhead wire. Mr. Alfred Baker, the manager of the Birmingham Tramways, interviewed, said that although the actual figures of the running costs had not been made out at the time he was certain they would not be more than those of running tbe ordinary trams and they would certainly be less than those of running the ordinary motor-buses. The receipts of the trams for the first eight weeks under the trackless system were 50 per cent higher than those of the last eight weeks under the original system. During those last eight weeks the mileage covered on the Nechells route under the old system was 32,354, with receipts £2581), and receipts per car mile lS.fld. Under the trackless system tlie figures were: Mileage, eight weeks, 45.72(1: receipts. £11914; receipts per car mile increased by 1.7 per cent. Tlv.-n. again a five-minute service only could be given on the route. Now the service is a four-minute one; and it could be made a one-minute one if desired.