A SHORTER ROUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 83, 7 April 1936, Page 17

A SHORTER ROUTE

MOTORISTS' VIEWS

TUNNEL FAVOURED

The Automobile Association (Wellington) last night supported the vecom- j mendation of the roads committee of the association that the proposal to shorten the access to Karori by way of Sydney Street West, should be passed over in favour ol a tunnel driven through the hill from the Bowen Street extension to the upper portion of Sydney Street near where this street joins .Tinakpri Road. The City Council, reported the roads committee, was making strong representations for a licence to lay tram tracks via Bowen Street and thence by a shorter route to join up with the present tram lines in Tinakori Road. A proposal had been made for taking the tram tracks through Sydney Street West, but the committee considered that if the scheme was approved the tram tracks should be taken up Bowen Street and then via a tunnel to the upper portion of Sydney Street. • RISK OF CONGESTION. There was no doubt that tram tracks through the narrow portion of Sydney Street West would cause considerable congestion and danger, and that with the increase in the amount of traffic the whole scheme would have to be reconsidered and perhaps altered in the not distant future. The roads committee suggested that representations should be made to the appropriate authorities in. regard to the question of route. . . It was made clear that the association was not particularly concerned about a western access, but if any scheme was suggested it would support the tunnel route. Mr E. Pallisef, chairman of the roads j committee, said that the association would be doing the citizens of Wellington and the residents in Sydney Street West a service if it supported the objection to the proposal to lay the tram tracks in Sydney Street. The tunnel route might be a little more costly, but it would be worthwhile. The important matter to bear in mind was safety. At the present time those concerned were considering taking the traffic out of one narrow street and putting it into another narrow street. The tunnel scheme was not a new one. "As we are concerned with traffic problems i|i this city," said Mr. Palliser, "it must be manifest to all of us that if the authorities put the tram lines through Sydney Street West it means that in time, owing to an increase in traffic, they will have to remove them. . . . 1 think in the interests of safety we should support the objectors to'the Sydney Street West route." ;