CITY TRANSPORT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 8

CITY TRANSPORT

Trams, Trolly Cars and Buses DIVERSE CONDITIONS Views of Mr. J. A. C. Allum “I find that whenever matters concerning transport crop up people are apt to talk and write too loosely and generally,” said Mr. J. A. C. Allum, chairman of the Auckland Transport Board, yesterday when asked to comment on the discussions that continually arise over the respective merits of electric trams, motor-buses and trackless or trolly cars. Mr. Allum has given the matter intensive study over a number of years, and probably is one of the best-posted men in the Dominion on this particular subject. Cannot Dogmatise. “The means of transport is something one cannot dogmatise upon,” said Mr. Allum. “They are so many and diverse that each Ims certain merits to favour its adoption when the local conditions suit.' But to advocate tearing up tracks in favour of a new means of transport which may not suit the traffic of that district or city would be the height of folly. You do hear of certain towns in England scrapping their tracks, and probably they were right to do so. The circumstances might be that the tracks had been allowed to drift during the war and since, and the question of their renewal, a costly business, has to be faced. Possibly this occurs in a city of narrow streets, where the tracks and trams have been more or less of a hindrance to traffic, so they decide to put on trolly buses. At the same time there are other cities, perhaps within a few hundred miles of the first, where they have and are actually extending their tramway tracks, and are finding that it pays to do so. So that one cannot dogmatise. London’s Trains. “Trams, too, are used in a different way in different places,” said Mr. Allum. “Trams are used in London mostly for short journeys—short journeys into the city and about the suburbs. There are hundreds of miles of such tramways in London. They are not used regularly to bring people from the suburbs into their work places in the city. That business is attended to there by the suburban railways. But what do you find in the case of Wellington or Auckland? The trams are used here up to seven mile runs to bring the people into their jobs, and take them home again. London itself is a city of narrow streets, so that the surface tramway does not obtrude. That traffic is left to the buses. But there are trams leaving London, and going away out to Croydon, Streatham Hill, and further out to Blackheath, Greenwich, Woolwich, and dozens of other suburbs, but these again are being mostly used by short-journey passengers. The surface and underground railways transport the great mass of city workers.

“So you see the position is quite different in such flung-out cities as Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin, as the density of the population is not great. In Auckland it averages out under five per acre, and I do not suppose it is any more in Wellington. So it will be seen that it would be folly to talk about rooting out tracks jn favour of a system which may not prove to be nearly so effective in the long run. In the first place you would be rooting out tracks which cost a great deal of money, and which possibly are not yet paid for. simply because another type of vehicle has been thought out which can gain its power from the overhead lines.

“What the public should remember is that trains—electric trams—incur the maximum capital cost for the minimum running cost, whereas motorbuses incur the minimum capital cost for the maximum running cost,” said Mr. Allum. “That is known and recognised the world over; so you see today tram tracks being extended out to all the new workers’ settlements around London. That was happening when I was in England three years ago, and is still continuing. How Chicago Reacts. “Let me tell you what is happening in Chicago, where there are plenty of trains, buses and trolly-cars. They have been going in pretty extensively for trolly-cars, and had, when I was there, about 150 of these cars serving new districts, but as those districts developed down went tramway tracks. As the population became denser it was found that it could best be served by trams. • “People gain, too, an erroneous idea of bus speed in a city. Most people who have visited in London will tell you how speedy the buses are in that city, yet it is a matter of fact that the average speed of the surface trams is slightly faster than that of the buses —about 10 miles an hour. Not that tlie buses cannot travel fast, but they are so frequently held up. at street junctions that the average speed is lowered to that of tramways which have the right of way of their own tracks. The Headway Guide. “As a general principle it seems to be that the form of transport is roughly governed by rhe headway—that is tlie frequency of the service. For a service which maintains a five to tenminute schedule, electric trams are tiie most efficient and economical; while for half-hour services buses would probably suit best. The trolly car comes in about half-way—for quarter-of-an-hour services. It would be nonsense to install electric trams when there was only sufficient business to warrant a quarter-of-an-hour service; and in just the reverse way buses amt trolly cars are usually not suitable when a frequent service is necessary. Of course, that again must be qualified by a consideration of local conditions, as no two cities in tlie world are alike in the transport problems they present.”