NOT OUT OF DATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 57, 9 March 1931, Page 5

NOT OUT OF DATE.

TRANSPORT BY TRAM.

COMPETITION OF BUSES,

CO-OPERATION OF TWO SYSTEMS

Whatever may- be other developments in passenger transport, trams will ne\ci ( be out of date. This is the opinion of Mr. J. Dalrymple, who for 22 years was general manager of the Glasgow Corporation Tramways. W itli his wife, he arrived in Auckland this morning by the Niagara.

Mr. Dalrymple referred to the competion which has arisen of late years between bus and tram transport, and said that after careful consideration he had come to the opinion first quoted. In the city areas the carriage of passengers by trams was efficient and reasonably quick. The tram routes were arterial, and tapped those parts of the city whither came and went the largest traffic.

While it was true the buses were more mobile than trams, their extra mobility was called into service only once in a long while. It might happen, for example, he said, that a part of the tram line would be so damaged that tempora-

rily it could not be used. Then the bus would undoubtedly have the advantage. If one portion of its route was impassable it would simply take another. This a tram could not do. "But it must be remembered," said Mr. Dalrymple, that such an occurrence would be extraordinary, and we dp not build for the extraordinary. Nobody does, because :t would obviously be impracticable. Something would always crop up winch had not been allowed for. Moreover, in the city areas proper, even the buses followed one route, day in and day out. People had to know the exact route they were taking before they took a bus or a tram. Otherwise, what was the use of a service? Mr. Dalrymple admitted that it was possible for* buses and trams to work in ! conjunction, the buses to take over a service where the trams left oil. He considered the Auckland system, _ in which a bus met a tram at the terminus and served the outlying areas, to be a good one. This was one example of where the extra mobility of the bus mi'-lit be used to advantage. Suburban bus services were becoming ™ ,re ami more common in England and. Scotland, and they were generally admitted to be efficient.

"Perhaps tramway concerns have been resting on their oars too long," added Mr. Dalrvmple, "and have allowed their facilities "to become a little antiquated. The advent of the bus has had the result which competition makes inevitable. Tramway services have been improved vastly. The machines are faster, the electrical equipment is more powerful, the lighting is more in keeping with an up-to-date interior, and, finally, the trams are far more comfortable. The public had got used to sitting on upholstered seats in the, buses, and they demand the same in the trams. And, what is more to the point, they are getting it." No city in Britain was able to dispense with its tram services. More was heard of the buses, he said, but trams formed a fundamental part of the transport system.