TRAMWAYS AND RAILWAY CROSSINGS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12177, 25 April 1905, Page 6

TRAMWAYS AND RAILWAY CROSSINGS.

It is hardly matter for surprise that the Tramway Board should hava remitted to a committee conskleration of tbe agreement with regard te railway crossings which the Railway Department invite them to sign. One at least of the comiitions is of such a character that it is difficult to aea how ..',... •., i *•_■_,,' -

Ir-a Board, under the restrictions ought to be imposed upon it, could •any on a tram asirioe on rtertain inea with any satisfaction to the pubic The agreement under notice proides, under aection 170 of the Pubiio Works Act, 1894, that "the right of 'the trains of the Board to cross the "Government railways at (certain) •crossings, or either of them, shall : cease when any engine, truck, waggon, 1 (railway) cycle or other railway '' vehicle is approaching or within half-"a-mile of sach crossing." Wo only have to remind our readers that tho Colombo road crossing is much lees than half-a-mile from Christchurch railway tation, and the Lincoln road crossing is within two hundred yards or so of Addington station, to convince them that such a condition is utterly unreasonable. It would frequently embarrass tbe tralEo on tbe Lincoln road, especially at Show time, wben trams are running backwards and forwards at short intervals between the city and the Show grounds. But if enforced it will simply paralyse all tram traffic below che South Belt, since there is not aa hour of the day or night when thero is not an engine or truck within half-a-mile of Colombo street. If these terms are imposed in all seriousness, the railway authorities cannot surely hava realised their full consequences. If, on the other hand, it is not intanded to enforce them, it b tha height of futility to insert them in an agreement which we presume is meant to bo binding in all other respects. In another olause tha Department demands that the wages of signalmen at tbo railway crossings, and all other expenses of tbo signal system or relating thereto, shall be borne by the Board. The Department will provide crosaing-keepers as may be required to protect the tramway where it crosses the railway, and the wages of sach men are to be re. oouped to the Department by the Board.- This is a strikingly unjust claim. Tbe employment of crossing-' keepers is necessitated by the railway traffic; the Department would hava to retain tbem if not another tram ever passed over the crossings. Tet it now seeks to transfer their oost to tha Tramway Board. We fail to understand bow it can possibly justify such a demand, and we hope to see the local members join with the Board in protesting against an attempt to saddle that body with expenses which it should not be asked to bear.