IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 209, 4 September 1929, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM,

A MOUNT ALBERT COMPLAINT. ,j

(To the Editor.)

Allow me to add another link to the neverending chain of complaints regarding our transport system, which apparently Mr. Allum considers perfect. I refer particularly to the Mount Albert service, such as it is. We are blessed with an eight-minute service, which is quite inadequate for the traffic offering. For example, in the morning a tram departs from Mount Albert at 7.40 a.m., and, although I board it only four stops from the terminus, it has practically a full seated load and is more often than not a "ehains-up" load on arrival at the Morningside tram clock five stops further on. At 7.56 a.m., or thereabouts, a "special" departs from the terminus with one or two passengers, and on reaching Morning-" side, the third section, we find few or no passengers, as they have been picked up by a Morningside tram only four minutes before and so to town we go with only half the seats occupied. Again, anyone attempting to board a tram from the city after 3 p.m. is forced to uso brute strength to get on or is left lamenting. The Transport Board seems to have overlooked the fact that during the> bus competition, when buses ran right through, to and from Blockhouse Bay and the city, a township sprang into being between the terminus and Manukau Road, Avondale, and along the latter road to Blockhouse Bay. In those days the people were not carried by the trams, but under the present "feeder" system (which is as nourishing to a growing district as chalk and water is to a growing child) all this traffic is thrown on to the trams, which is the cause" of the present overcrowding. While the board seems to be spoon feeding certain districts (everybody knows the ones I mean), including Morningside, which has for the busy period a four-minute service, it is starving those on the fourth, fifth and sixth sections. Why cannot we have "fourth-section-only" trams during rush hours? Cannot the Mount Albert Borough Council, representing one of Auckland's largest "tinpot" boroughs, use its influence in improving this state of affairs, or is it to be gulled by that time-worn phrase "We have not sufficient rolling stock"? It is Mr. Allum's boast that the trams have not cost the ratepayers one penny out of rates. This can easily be explained, as the working man has been called upon to pay high fares to keep these rattletraps on the road, and surely he can expect in return value for his money in the form of a decent service. STRAPHANGER.