HOPE FOR WESTERN ACCESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1936, Page 10

HOPE FOR WESTERN ACCESS

How to give Wellington's growing western suburbs better access to the city has been an issue now for many years. Rival schemes and routes have been proposed and discussed without any finality, but the recommendation of the Public Petitions Committee of Parliament (if accepted by the Government) in the direction of the City Council's own preference for a short cut connecting Lambton Quay and Upper Tinakori Road, via Bowen Street; and Upper Sydney Street, removes one obstacle which has hitherto •prevented final settlement of the question. If tramways are to. be perpetuated in Wellington, the plan proposed is regarded as the cheapest and most practical way out of the difficulty. The saving in time and distance over the existing route, via Lower Tinakori Road and Molesworth Street, is material, and the cost will be much less than would be entailed by other schemes. The Government reaps the advantage of acquiring additional area adjoining the Parliamentary Buildings by taking in Museum Street and Lower Sydney Street West, so that there is a mutual gain. It is understood that the tramways department has sufficient funds in hand to complete the work; If so, there will be no necessity to go again for a loan to the ratepayers, who turned the proposal down in 1929. For the consolation of those who advocate other schemes, notably the Norway Street route and tunnel, it may be said that there is nothing to stop the ultimate attainment of better access that way, if the ratepayers approve. The real question to be faced in the long run, however, is riot so much tramway routes as methods of transport. Are tramways. to_ be perpetuated in Wellington? The Mayor (Mr. Hislop), at the annual meeting of the Vogeltown and Momington Municipal Electors' Association in June last, declared that it was very much open to question whether the system of tramways, as known in Wellington, was going .to survive very much longer, and expressed his own opinion that the trolley-bus was the thing of the future, being cheaper than the tram to install and using the i existing source of electricity. It had the great advantage of being noisei less. Similar views have been ex- '• pressed from time to time by cor : respondents and others. It is well known that there has been a wholesale change-over in numerous British cities from tramways to trolleyi buses. To these arguments the Iramiway authorities have made no convincing reply. tramway transport can be made a3 convenient, comfortable, cheap to maintain, and noiseless in running as its rivals, then there is a. perfectly good case for its continuance. Citizens are entitled to an assurance on this point before .consenting to extensions of the system. The council has a special duty placed upon it to investigate the whole plan thoroughly, in view of the fact that by using available funds it will avoid submitting, the scheme to the ratepayers who formerly voted against a similar proposal. Reversal by the council of an adverse decision without reference to the ratepayers must be justified up to the hilt.