TRAMWAY HOLD-UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 22, 25 July 1940, Page 13

TRAMWAY HOLD-UP

MAIN FEEDER FAULT

CITY TRAFFIC STOPPED

A tramway hold-up, from before five o'clock till almost the half-hour, brought all traffic, motor as well as tram, to a dead stop in the main streets yesterday afternoon and resulted in even longer delays in people reaching their homes, for trains and other connections were missed. A fault, believed to be in the underground feeders, threw the city sections out, but the outer sections still had their power and trams were turned back from Courtenay Place and from the Government Buildings', on the Karori and Wadestown lines. That did not, of course, console passengers who sat in dead trams hoping that the next minute would bring the power on again. There were, as usual when such breakdowns happen, complaints that conductors and motormen would give no information about how long the hold-up was likely to last: they did not because they could not In most cases faults in power supply to the tramway service are evident either in broken overhead gear, in distributing stations, or in fused feeders if they are underground, but the fault yesterday afternoon, though immediately sought for, could not be found, and power was restored by bridging the sections normally supplied by distinct feeders and bringing in standby direct current plant. The piling up of cars in the centre sections of the city tracks—there were eighteen cars on the north-bound line in Willis Street—and the congestion caused by parked cars, pretty well blocked the motor roadway, and traffic was taken in hand by the Traffic Office and most of it diverted to the back streets. A partial restoration of power was made at about quarter past five and some of the cars moved away, not far as a rule. Just as the shop closinghour was reached, with another rush for transport coming, the emergency circuits were completed, and the cars got away, crowded to the hatches, notwithstanding that a greater number had given waiting up and walked.