City Transport

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 13

City Transport

Sir, —From the report of the tramways engineer on the tramway extensions to Mornington it is obvious that Wellington has reached a stalemate as far as tramway matters are concerned. It must he obvious that the City Council will have to reorganise this department because we are not progressing either in our bus service or tramway service. Fiducia cost anything up to £7OOO and apparently for some unpublished reasons the new style of car is not being duplicated. Suburban dwellers who are not fortunate enough to own motor-cars must just suffer inconvenience. One notices that Mr. Cable in stressing the initial cost and probable running losses for the first year or so until the district becomes thickly populated forgets that the municipal tramways are a social necessity which cannot be estimated to the last penny of profit. Mr. Cable hag forgotten one source of city revenue —rating on the land value. Surely the building of the tramways will improve the rateable value of Mornington property and again eventually the whole value of the Brooklyn district must go up further when there are no more building sites left and then houses in the combined district will demand a premium in addition to their value. The people of Wellington pay some £3B per week in interest on the cost of the new Mount Victoria tunnel, and the transport department docs not raise the question of making the users pay. Neither does the Government charge the scholars of the State schools for tuition given, but we all pay for it in rates and taxes. The City Council and Mr. Cable have apparently overlooked the fact that Parliament has given the municipal authorities a monopoly of the transport system ■of Wellington city. It is not intended that the city officials should adopt a dog in the manger attitude and abuse the advantages of sole monopoly, otherwise the subui-ban residents will have no alternative but to approach the State to take over the whole of Wellington transport work as the New South Wales Government has done in Sydney. That is what will have to be (lone unless the officials realise what can happen now that we have a Government in power for the benefit of the people. The people would be justified in demanding the change. tL'he city is too bijr now f° r tbe State to allow mere tinkering with such a big and universal problem as transport. Another attempt at tinkering is the proposal to put the Karori trams through Bowen Street when the logical way is by tunnel from Willis Street to Glenmore Road via Norway Street.—l am. etc., L. G. AUSTIN. Wellington, December 13.