SCRAPPING ITS TRAMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1938, Page 30

SCRAPPING ITS TRAMS

CITY OF MANCHESTER

DELAY SCHEME ABANDONED A year ago the Manchester City Council approved a recommendation of its transport committee that the tramway system should be abandoned, but that the conversion should be made gradually, as and when circumstances permitted. On August 23, however, the matter was again before the committee, and as a result it appears that the abandonment will be completed as soon as practicable. The general manager of the transport department, Mr. R. Pilcher, said afterwards that the conversion would be completed within three years. , In the report, Mr. Pilcher discussed the relative merits of the trolley-bus and the motor-bus, their respective mobility and operation costs. He said: . . "I think it may be accepted that the revenue earned by either the trolleybus or the motor-bus will be similar. Compared with tramways, each is suf-

ficiently mobile to earn more revenue, to travel faster,I,to run on a more profitable basis, and to be a definite relief to traffic congestion." Traffic congestion had become a most serious problem, he said. Large sums of money were being spent on street widenirigs and improvements, and in order to provide adequately for the parking of vehicles, the city would probably be. faced ifl the future with the provision of large parking places which would be costly to construct and to maintain. "The trolley-bus causes less congestion than the tram and is able to run at, a higher schedule speed than the raili vehicle, but the motor-bus is more mobile and more adaptable in congested streets than the trolley r bus. For this reason I am of the opinion that the motor-bus is the more suitable vehicle for operation in the centre of the he stated. The conversion is not to be wholly either to'trolley-buses or motor-buses. Both are to; be used according to suitability to the routes to be served. Inter alia, the Chief Constable, who also figures' in the report, said the consensus of opinion of the.traffic officers was that the trblley-bus was awkward at turning but capable of swift acceleration, * reliable in mechanism and control, and silent in operation; but as no allowance was practicable in an emergency, its mobility was far behind the petrol-driven bus. He pointed out that petrol-bus services could be deviated to adjoining streets in the event of congestion or from any ; other emergencies (processions and the like), whereas the trolley-bus was confined to streets with the necessary overhead equipment. ' V The report, says that the greater part of the outstanding debt on the tramways undertaking will be paid off in nine years,, and adds: "It may? be said that certain assets; of the transport undertaking are being scrapped although still of value.: The answer to" this is that the new form of transport earns a. higher revenue, runs at a less cost per mile, is capable of earning a greater profit, has a low butstanding capital liability (175 of the present fleet of 647 motor-buses being entirely written off), whereas on the tramway side of the undertaking the system is running at a loss." j