OFFICIAL TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 79, 30 September 1924, Page 8

OFFICIAL TRIAL

FIRST TRACKLESS TRAM IN AUSTRALASIA ITS POSSIBILITIES IN NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS RUNS NEXT WEEK. The official trial run of the trackless car was made this morning, when $the Mayor and councillors and officers of the Corporation tried t the new car out and found it comfortable, satisfactory, and distinctly promising as a future means of passenger conveyance.

There was no suggestion of " joyriding " in council cars this mornings for the party boarded a tramcar—a new car upon its first run also—at the Town Hall for Thorndon. Here there was a change to the trackless car, but the pay-as-you-enter rule was not insisted upon, the Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright.) alone tendering his penny through the glass wicket. An assurance was given by the traffic manager that the first fare would be faithfully put towards the tramway finances.

The trial consisted in a direct run to the Kaiwarra terminus and turning place, where photographs were the order, and a return run, during which the remarkable flexibility of the car as to freedom of movement across the roadway was demonstrated. It was shown that passengers could be picked up at the kerb and that the car could be swung, if it should be necessary to avoid an obstacle, clear across the bitumen track. Even upon the road " wings," the unsurfaced macadam on either side of the bitumen track, the going was quite comfortable, and uponthepaving therunning was almost as smooth as- that of a conventional rail car.

In every way the trackless car is well finished and is pleasing in appearance, both on the exterior and in interior. j THE MAYOR SATISFIED WITH TRIAL. Arrived back at the Thorndon terminus, the party was addressed by the Mayor. Ale. Wright referred first to the negotiations which had led up to the appearance of the car in Wellington. A firm in Great Britain had made the suggestion that it should send out the machinery on approval; that was, if the council was satisfied with it, it should pay for it and keep it, and, if not, that it should return it, the council to pay for the building of the body and the installation of the necessary overhead gear. The proposal was a very reasonable one, of which tho council had been glad to avail itself.

The trial run had shown, said Mr. Wright, that as far as comfort and ease of handling wero concerned the service should bo successful, and it was also evident that such a system would be economical in running, since a mbtorman only was required to take charge. "I am" satisfied," • continued Mr. Wright, "that the- last word has not been eaid in tramway travelling. I notice that in some of the big towns of Great Britain they are going so far as to pull up the tramway tracks for tho purpose of running trackless cars. That means that they have discovered that trackless cars will be so much cheaper j than rail cars' as far as wear and tear ! upon equipment and track are concerned. "However, I' do not suppose for a moment that tho amount of traffic between Thorndon and Kaiwarra will make tho present service pay, but it may bo that in tho near future the council will find it necessary to run the car to the foot of the new Khandallah road. Perhaps then, if they can carry out the scheme in view of putting an inclined tramway to Khandallah, the service will tap tho whole district nnd incidentally increase the valuo of the council's land at the Homebush estate." " Mr. Wright warmly congratulated tho officers and all those who had been associated with the inauguration of the sorvice. •" ONLY A BEGINNING." Tho people of Kaiwarra, continued the Mayor, wero going to be on a better wicket' than residents in some other j parts of Wellington, but probably, when the council had gained experience of the new system, it would bo intro- | duced elsewhero,

"It is only tlie beginning of a new era. as far as Wellington is concerned. I may say that this is not only the first trackless car in New Zealand;, it is tho first, tho pioneer, in Australasia. Wellington takes the lead, as it should do." RUN MAY BE EXTENDED.I The General Manager of .Tramways, slr. M. Cable, said that in many important cities trackless passenger transport had been adopted, and it was possible that in it would bo found the solution of tho transport difficulties for several outlying districts of Wellington. Tho present installation was of very considerable value as an experiment, and probably if the run were -extended out for another half mile or so and brought right in to Lambton station, providing arrangements could be made for the' turning of tho big car at Lambton station, the run would bring larger returns. He referred to the part Mr. l'\ Black, consulting engineer, had played in firsl bringing before tho notice of Wellington the possibilities of the trackless car, and of the assistance given by Mr. W. Rogers, of Messrs. Inglis Bros., the New Zealand agents of the makers, tho Asso dated Equipment Company, London. In small towns and in districts where tho roads were good, said Mr. Cable, the trackless car system might be found to bo ideal. GREAT POSSIBILITIES IN NEW ZEALAND. Mr. Black said that lie was very pleased to be present at the inauguration of the first railless car system in Australasia. As an old tramway man he had never thought that a railless system would ever take the place of a rail service. It was not a new thing, for railless cars had been running for the past twenty years, but it was only during the ast four or five years that the syEtem bad been developed to any great extent, 10-day, however, it was competing with rail cars in many parts of the world particularly where the old system was becoming worn out under the stress of years of traffic. "The system," continued Mr. Black, "is probably almost ideal for New Zealand, in view of tho fact that the Government is providing electrical power in every part of tho country. It is up to towns to lake advantage of this electrical power rather than to spend money in. importing fuel for motor buses and such means of transport." Mi-. Rogers spoke briefly, slating that his firm had been glad of the opportu- . nity of demonstrating the new type of vehicle. OPEN FOR TRAFFIC NEXT WEEK. It was proposed that the new service j should be opened for regular passenger traffic to-morrow, but it has now been decided that, a minor alteration is to be carried out to the motorman's cabin. As J/he^calnn^JE at. presgnt.jv wooden panjl-

ling, makes it difficult for the driver to gain a view of the traffic following when he is about to make a turn, and this panelling will therefore be replaced by glazing. r Probably the first regular runs will be made next Monday morning.