TAKAFUNA TRANSPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 9

TAKAFUNA TRANSPORT.

Sir,—lt will be a pity if the suggestion of the Devonport Ferry Co. in favour of adopting trolley buses is carried out. These vehicles are very cumbersome, and necessitate overhead traction, which would make our roads a network of unsightly wires, added to which the concrete is not sufficiently wide to enable them to move freely when passing other traffic, and if compelled to leave the concrete when travelling at any considerable speed, the inequalities of the other portion of the road would have the tendency to cause the trolley arm to jump the guides. Trolley buses have been adopted in several industrial centres in the Old Country, but have not proved an unqualified success, and a much simpler way of dealing with our traffic problem over here would probably be to adopt the scheme used by our Railway Department on several branch lines in the South Island. This consists in providing powerful motor chasses fitted, with flanged wheels and coupling same up with a sufficient number of light carriages to carry the traffic. I am already in communication with the department asking for further particulars, but from reports already to hand I believe the cost of transporting passengers is about one-third of the ordinary charge, while the adoption of this scheme, if it is practical, would enable us to make use of the rails already in situ. The weak point of the plan is that it would necessitate employing petrol as a motive power, but in view of the fact that synthetic petrol is already within the bounds of practical commercial possibility, I do not think this objection should carry too much weight. H. L. HARRISON.