OVERCROWDED TRAMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 37, 13 February 1941, Page 8

OVERCROWDED TRAMS

Overcrowding of trams, particularly at morning and afternoon rush hours, is no new thing in Wellington, but during the last few months the discomforts and difficulties of the public travelling on the cars at these times have increased through abnormal conditions of loading and given rise to strong protests. The position was discussed by the City Council at last night's meeting, and various palliatives or remedies were suggested. The Mayor (Mr. Hislop) said that the only real solution to the problem was to put more tramcars on the road. Here thd-obstacle was the difficulty of procuring essential materials from abroad. Furthermore, the position had been; aggravated by the shortage of staff due to enlistments for military service. Mr/Hislop said that the employees had been invited to co-operate by working extra shifts on the "call forward" system. To this proposal Councillor Butler said the men Were definitely averse. Another sugges-, tion was the employment of youths under military age, but- it was pointed out that their services would be lost when they were called up in the ballot and went into camp. The employment of female conductors was not seriously considered. For long-distance passengers, who are the worst sufferers by overcrowding, it was suggested that the reintroduction of the minimum fare system might be worth consideration.

Though some alleviation might be achieved by a "staggering" of hours of work so as to spread the rush hours over longer periods of the day, the practical difficulties and the consequent dislocation of business probably rule\put any wide application of this remedy. There seems to be no question that the only effective solution would be to have more cars on the road at rush hours to meet the traffic. 'This line of development seems to promise the best results. The tramway authorities have had a long experience with the handling of traffic, and there have been other, periods in the , past—notably after tlie last war—when overcrowding was just as bad as it is now, and from the same cause —the existence of war. Many ideas were put forward on these occasions. One was -the coupling of cars, to 'run in pairs, with one motorman and one or two conductors, but apparently the regulations forbade the experiment. Nowhere in the world does the problem of rush-hour traffic on passenger transport vehicles seem to have been solved, at least to the satisfaction pf the travelling public, but there are; certainly limits to what the public should be asked to endure, even in wartime, until every possible remedy has been tried. There still seems fair scope for improvement by the tramway authorities in meeting the public's reasonable demands.