CITY TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 117, 21 May 1925, Page 9

CITY TRANSPORT

TRAM, TRAIN, AND BUS

THEIR RELATIVE CLAIMS

REVIEWED BY LATEST

AUTHORITY.

The continued rapid growth of the city of Wellington, with its steady increase in population, together -with recent developments in road locomotion, has tended during the last few months to bring the vital problems of the transport of the public into great prominence. The predicament of the Auckland municipality, with motor buses competing, apparently successfully, with the Corporation trams in the task of moving the people in and out and about the city, lias impressed the ratepayer. and his representatives in the other uentros to such a degree that candidates at the recent City Council elections, in Wellington, at aoy rate, openly advocated "scrapping" tho city's tram system by a gradual substitution with motor buses. It was suggested that this was what cities were already doing in America and the Old World. On the other hand, there were stalwart defenders o! the tramways, including those responsible for their management, who during the last live years have replaced many miles of worn-out permanent way all over tho central part o! the system and are still proceeding with tho work, and even constructing hew lines. These contend that the electric tramcar is by no means a back number and that no roal substitute ia yet in view.

Now the public wants to know which IHU'ty. is right, which gives the real truth of the position, or the nearest approach to it. In such a quandary, to know which to believe,, it is usual to c.-ill in the expert from outside to decide. Fortunately, in the present instance, there .has just appeared in Britain, where the problem is also acute, but much further advanced in its development, a book which is likely to become the standard authority on the subject for some lime to come. ECONOMICS OF PROBLEM This work, which has just been submitted to "The Post" for review, is entitled "The Economics of Road Transport." The author is Mr. K. G. I'enelon, M.A., Lecturer on Economics in tho University of Edinburgh, and the publishers are Messrs. George Allen and Unwin, of London. It is a stout, sub-' stantial volume, covering a wide field, with an historical retrospect of tho development of road transport in Britain, and a, series of chapters surveying the several aspects of tho problem . which faces town and country alike in New Zealand to-day. These include the competition of the motor vehicle with the railway in the carriage of passengers and goods, so serious a little while ago in the Dominion, and the various forms of more or less rapid transport for people in cities—the suburban, train, electric or steam, the subway or tube, the surface tramway and the motor bus, with reference to their frequently destructive rivalries and their proper place in a co-ordinated complete system of city transport. It is thia phase which has a more .-particular, interest to Wei- \ lington. , ' .' ■■ " ' . -.- :

Mr. Fenelon, who, as a student ana observer on a university staff, is not connected with any party "to the controversy, gives an absolutely impartial review of the situation: as it is to-day. His conclusions may be summarised briefly as follow:—

(1) Adequate, cheap, and efficient pasEenger transport facilities are an essential requirement of urban life.

(2) With a growing population a progressive policy is essential, and to cope with the expense of this, single control, if. not ownership,■ of all transport facilities, in a district is desirable. Competition: usually means waste of transport over some routes and neglect of. lesspaying routes, with consequent injustice to the people living along them. (3) The possibility of extension from the economic point of view depends largely on the particular- method of transportation utilised—railway (steam or electric), electric tramway, electric trackless tram, and motor bus.

(4) The electric or.Bteam operated railway—surface, underground, or elevated —is only suitable if traffic be heavy. (5) Tho tramway, if it is to be remunerative, requires considerable though not such heavy traffic. (6) Where. traffic is not dense or in outlying areas the motor-bus has marked advantages over all other systems of passenger transport. It is a flexible mode of transport, and can thrive on a light traffic. 17) The place of the trackless electric trolley bus is an intermediate one between the tramway and the motor-bus, where traffic is neither very heavy nor very light. The trolley bus could run with a profit where the ordinary tram would lose money, and the motor-bus might succeed where the trolley bus would fail.

CO-OPERATION OF ALL FORMS

" There is, however,'" says Mr. Fenelon in his chapter on City Transport, 'no finality in the answer to the question- as to what constitutes the best type of urban passenger transport. If is impossible to say thai, any one method is the best,-and, indeed, in a large city the solution can only bn found through the co-operation of many forms of transport. The different sy'kems—tram, bus railway, etc.—have each their own merits, their hmit-itions, and . their own traffic requirements. . . ." Jjy the correct appreciation of the economic character and tariff suitability of tho various types.of transport an adequate system can bo provided by a combination ot the different methods."

So much for general conclusions on the question of city transport. The particular issue of motor-bus v. tram before the Wellington public can now be treated in;regard to the allegations made by "the advocates of the motor-bus as tho legitjmato successor of an obsolete electric tramway system, and tho answers that may bo obtained from a perusal of the pages of Mr. Fenelon's book.

NO WHOLESALE SCRAPPING OF

TRAMS

It has bpen alleged on the. platform and in letters to the Prcsa that electric tramway systems are being scrapped in Britain and motor or trolley buses substituted.

Says Mr. Fonelon (page 141) : "As repuck the policy of su&stitulfn? motorhuses ,or-;in existitij tramway' system, it will be found tb;,t in very fexv towns or cities baa such a complete change ever been attempted. 1' - THe example of Oxford, a residential city with a population mnalloi- than that of Wellington, is quoted. - Here the tramway system was entirely scrapped and motor-buses substituted. ■ The case is quite in keeping ■with Mr. Fenelon's conclusions In a university town, living largely on the undergraduate student, rush-hour trnflic does nob exist in the sense that Weljington knows it. The population of Oxford consists mainly of' leisured, retirod people, and their dependants and the staffs of the colleges. Moreover, there

was in this case an added inducement to scrap the trams, for overhead wires do not go well with medieval architecture. .

There have been a number of partial substitutions where services along nonpayiiijr lines in a syetem have been dropped, and motor or trolley buses run instead. _ In Birmingham the trolley bus was installed over a narrow, busy thoroughfare with heavy traffic because duplication of the existing tram lines would have practically blocked the road. "The policy of partial substitution." says Mr. Fenelon, "is recommended for the central and congested areas of large towns." Central London is quoted as an example of this. Wellington has hardly reached that stage as yet. THE BUS IN LONDON The motor-bus advocates contend that the whole transport system of a city like Wellington could be carried on suecesefully by the motor-bus. They point to what the motor-bus is doing in London. One- would think "by this that the motor-bus carried the bulk of London traffic. This is far from being so. All the buses, L.G.0.0. and rivals, carry only about one-third of the passengers carried who make up London's traffic figures. These are quoted by Mr. Fenelon for 1922 :— Omnibuses, L.G.O.C. 846,682,673 Other omnibuses 147,126,917 Tramways 1.036,176,655 Tube railways 207,419,968 Local railways 365,500,000 Suburban railways ... 319,000,000 Total (approximate) 2,921,500,000

These figures will speak for themselves. Mr. Ifenelon adds: "Even in London the tramways take a greater proportion of the rush-hour traffic than do the buses. ... It would be a mistake 1.0 consider London traffic as being provided for, in the central area, only by motorbuses. Tho transit facilities must be viewed as a whole, and if this is done the importance of the underground electric railways will be appreciated." POSITION SURVEYED As to the allegation that the tramway is obsolete, Mr. Fenelon says:— "Where traffic is heavy, and where lit is spread over the day so that a frequent, service is necessary, the tramway will, in general, provide the best and cheapest method of transport in most towns and cities. In the transport of large numbers of passengers tho tramway still holds its own and, as far as can be seen, is not as yet likely to bo superseded. . In relation to peak loads or rush-hour traffic the tramway is better fitted to cope with such traffic than any other forms of street transport. ... No motor-bus system attempts to cope completely with this rush-hour traffic in our industrial communities. ... It may be concluded that in many large towns "and cities tramways are, on the whole, the most convenient and most economical method of passenger transport, and that, as far as can be seen at present, they will continue to provide the best method of dealing with heavy street traffic. >A~t the same time, we must be prepared to see the motor bus and trackless trolley increase their scope and talte over the work formerly done by tramways where these are not working to the best advantage. ..." Summing up the claim for co-ordina-tion of transport under one control, Mr. Fenelon concludes: "Transport undertakings must be viewed as a whole, and. it is not always essential that every route should prove profitable so long' as the system itself is on an economic basis. This, indeed, is a strong argument in favour of unity o£ administration in a natural transport area. Just as pressure of economic considerations has hastened amalgamation and co-ordination of railways, so likewise in city transport grouping and co-ordinated development would help to achieve financial success and to provide better facilities, though it is essential that the economic characteristics of each type' or system oE transport be appreciated and each put to that service for which it is best suited." These observations; and, indeed, the whole book, are.well worth the attention of those interested in tho city* transport problems.