HELD UP.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 94, 21 April 1924, Page 6

HELD UP.

- * - RETURNING . RACEGOERS. TRAMWAY BREAKDOWN. ! Racegoers returning by tram to the I city after the last race at Ellerslie on 'Saturday were held up for three-quar-ters of an hour. The breakdown occurred about 5.30 p.m., when the loading was at its highest pressure. The traffic most greatly affected was that in the Great South Road, where many thousands of passengers" in scores of trams, either sat or stood awaiting movement, expressing liberal opinions regarding the Tramway Department, or else got out and walked or sought other means of transport. The Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, stated that the delay was not due to a breakdown, but to a failure of electricity supply, which should not have happened, from the power station at King's wharf, in conjunction with the Epsom substation. The officers of the Tramway Department had advised that in their opinion the stoppage was due to faulty and insufficient arrangement at the power station, which, since April 1, entirely supplied the tramway services. The City Council was, therefore, now entirely dependent on the Power Board, and it was satisfied that, with adequate arrangement and efficient staff organisation, the board's undertaking to the council that it would fully meet the requirements of the tramways, even with the heaviest loads, could easily be carried out. The weakness shown on Saturday, said the Mayor, would obviously be repeated with heavy loading if nothing was done. The matter would be taken up by the City Council with the Power Board, though the board's engineer, who fully realised the position, had advised the tramways manager that steps had already been taken to avoid any repetition of Saturday's failure, and this assurance should be a sufficient guarantee against a similar failure in future. "The- council is satisfied the Power Board can, and will, carry out its contract to provide sufficient power for all tramway purposes," concluded the ! Mayor. "Otherwise it would become necessary to review the position, in the interests of fully maintaining services in all conditions." It is stated that the "unavoidable failure in power supply" was caused by the blowing out of a safety valve at the Epsom sub-station, a contingency that could not have been forseen, and of which there was hardly one chance in a thousand.