WESTERN ACCESS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 9, 12 January 1932, Page 10

WESTERN ACCESS

MUSEUM STREET ROUTE

\VETOED BY CABINET

A FRESH STAET?

Adequate western access, which has already cost the city £.70,000 in expenditure or unavoidable commitments, is still "in the air," Cabinet having decided against the laying of a tram track in Bowen, Museum, and Sydney streets. This route could have been completed at a further cost of £24,000, whereas tho alternative cemetery route, difficulties in connection with which turned attention to the Bowen, Museum, and Sydney street route, would .cost £.75,000, a sum which in the present conditions of financial stringency tho City Council could not find. All that tho city has for its expenditure to date is a decided improvement to Quinton's corner and Sydney street, but the amount spent does not return a penny, nor does it assist tramway services. The Access Commission recommended a Boweu street-Cemetery route as the first work to improve western access, but the proposed interference with graves, and later property questions, led to an amending of the route. Lack of confidence in the consent of the Government to a tram route through Museum street led to plans for linking up the Sydney street cut by 'a new road through the corner of the cemetery, a provision which added to the cost of the work. A proposal to finance trams via Bowen street and tho cemetery was rejected by the ratepayers in 1929, and when the council proposed to raise tho money otherwise legal complications arose. Western residents will view the doeision of the Government with disappointment, as apparently the only alternative untried, and which there is no guarantee that the Government will accept, ia a bus service-, which, it was pointed out in August, at the public meeting which approved the Bowen, Museum, and Sydney street route for trams, could not carry the people at a fare comparable to that charged on the trams, bus fares over similar routes averaging double the tram fares. GOVERNMENT'S DECISION. Just before Christmas the Right Hon. J. G. Coates wrote to the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop), who has only just resumed his duties after the holidays, as follows:— . "Dear Sir, —Access to Western Suburbs: In reference to your letter of 3rd November, in. which you ask the attitude which the Government will take in the event of the City Council making application for an Order in. Council authorising the laying of a tram line iv Bowon, Museum, and Sydney streets, I have to advise that the matter has beon under the consideration of Cabinet for some time, and that a recent meeting of Cabinet decided it was unable to see its way to ehtdrtain the proposal.—J. G. Coates, for the Prime Minister." "DISAPPOINTING." "In view of this decision," said the Mayor to a "Post" reporter to-day, "the question of improved access to tho west will have to .be reconsidered by the Tramway Committee and the City Council.^ The applications, subsequent to the decision of the citizens in support of tho x>roposal, wero only made after very careful investigation into tho objections by tho Government that trams would interfere with the amenities of Parliament House, and it was the definite opinion of the qualified experts of tlie Corporation, as well as of the Government, that the tramway track could be so constructed as to avoid any noise which could reasonably be regarded as an interference with the amenities of the House. It is disappointing that the Government should apparently place no reliance on these expert opinions, and that the citizens of Wellington should be deprived of a necessary work because of the fear on the part of the Government" that the amenities of the House might be interfered with during the three months or so of the year when it is in session. Meanwhile the i tramway undertaking is saddled with unnecessary costs in transporting residents to the western suburbs, and the relief to the unemployment position, which this necessary work would have afforded, will not be provided. A BUS SERVICE? "It remains to be decided," said Mr. Hislop, "whether other forms of transport will be used through this route, and, if so, whether that will not in fact cause considerably more^ disturbance than a trarrnvay service.' Would have done. Judging from the experience recorded in reports elsewhere, there is little doubt that this other form of transport will cause greater disturbance to the delicate susceptibilities of legislators than a train way service would have done. ' "There was some suggestion that a tramway service might .interfere with tho work in the Government Laboratory in Sydney street. While expert opinion is that tho. track could have been so constructed, as to avoid anysuch interference, the fact remains that the other form of transport,. if it is established, will be less appreciated by the Department." Mr. Hislop declined to be more definite until the whole matter had been discussed as ho had outlined. '■ BUSES TOO NOISY? While there may be a considerable, difference between the trams in use in Wellington and those used in English cities, and also between the buses (many of the old vehicles with double decks still on the road at Home making their own brantl of'dissonance over imperfect roads) the Mayor's remarks concerning the noisier nature of buses were fully borno out at a conference of the Municipal Tramways and Municipal Transport Association held at Olympia in November last. A few extracts of the opinions which were generally accepted are worth while:— '■ Mr. A. B. Fearnley, general manager of Sheffield Corporation Transport, commenting on a clause in the paper read, which said "Up to the present time we have had to be content with almost the original design of change speed mechanism, and we are tired of noisy and crashing gears/ said that the public was*tircd of all this noise, and when putting buses on residential routes was suggested, the public objected because of tho noise. Mr. Bailie Dollan (Glasgow) said: "The manufacturers of motor-vehicles have done very well-indeed, but Mr. Fearnley's point is correct. When we try to extend bus routes into the residential areas there are objections because of the noise. • If noise can be eliminated on the private car it can bo eliminated on the public service vehicle." Major T. Aveling said that the chief problem was to obtain silent gears throughout. It was possible to have a silent top gear and a silent third, perhaps, but it was impossible to get the gears silent from top to bottom in one bus.