LIMIT REACHED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 128, 2 June 1942, Page 4

LIMIT REACHED

CROWDED TRANSPORT

TRAMS AND BUSES WORST

The overcrowding of trams and buses on every run in and out of Wellington, morning and evening and again after the theatres, has reached the limit, though people thought that five years ago when a dozen passengers had to stand to get home. The limit is fixed now, not by comfort and convenience, but by the practical impossibility of jamming any more passengers into tram cars and buses —with the Ngaio-Khandallah railcars not far behind in extreme congestion in the late afternoons. Suburban trains run full, but not crowded to the platforms. v To be left standing at an intermedi- ' ate suburban tram stop because "there's another car behind" is to be expected nowadays as a matter of course. These : intermediate stop passengers have it both ways. They may or may not be able- to get' on to go to work, and they fight to get off going home. Terminus passengers are better placed; they are more or less sure of a seat coming in| and they don't have to fight a way off going out. Revenue is lost to the tramway department through the inability of conductors to : get through, especially on the short runs to evening trains. REMOVAL OF SEATS. The removal of so many seats from, fifty or so trams certainly has made some more*standing room, but because in the new fully-enclosed tram-cars (the Fiducia type) the extra standing space has been created in the centre of the cars, passengers are anything but willing to move along from the ends, knowing, that they will be jammed in before their stop is reached —these are the middle-distance people again, who have too far to walk and would not be helped at all by a reintroduction "of minimum fares; in fact, they would be worse off. It has been suggested to "The Post" that were the central: seats replaced and seats removed from either end that would help, or, alternatively, that all the single seats should be taken out. No more cars can be put on the rails, for there are no more to put there during rush hours. Another suggestion is that rerouting of trams through the city itself, by making more use of the Jeryois Quay I and Wakefield Street lines, would 'spread the loading to some extent, | though people would have to do mora walking. But that would not, of course, put anymore trams on the rails. Auckland is engaging a considerable number of women conductors/Women might get through Wellington cars well enough during normal hours, but it would be a different matter during peak hours. The bus crowding—city, Hutt Valley, Eastbourne, and the,lesser number running to Ngaio and Khandallah— passes anything the one-time regulations forbade. It is past mere discomfort, but there is nothing for it unless some radical alteration or some "radical new rules are brought down. A little has been done in regard to the staggering of hours of work, and possibly, as the heavy rush extends from soon after 4 p.m. till well towards 6 p.m., , no great relief could so be given. BAN ON NON-WORKEBS. That drastic steps are likely to be taken has been suggested by the No. 1 (Auckland district) Licensing Authority (Mr. E. J. Phelan). He forecast heavy reductions in road transport services, a probable ban on women and children travelling in buses .during peak traffic hours, and co-ordina-tion of all suburban services with railways and trams. > It was reported some weeks ago that in Sydney a ban had been placed on non-workers travelling in trams and. buses during peak hours, workers V having to produce a chit, or some other form of identification, to justify themselves as rush hour passengers. ; The astonishing thing is that, with the seriousness of the public transport ■ position, let alone the discomfort, so";! patent,' women and > children,- : and. ■ % baskets, do frayel in the numbers they i do-in trams and buses, rto whioifc: « workers have a-first moral'ctal**^; •;"