THE CITY TRAMWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 11711, 20 March 1902, Page 8

THE CITY TRAMWAYS.

To THIC EDITOR. Sir,-Or Scott, in his interview with you reporter, pulls a herring across the scent when he talks of spending £6,000 for extra cars, and the chance of having to levy a rate for the same. Where do the profits go which must be made by the trams as ran at present? Where would the profits go that would Ik.made by extra accommodation t Would any business man in the City not take on as "a u spec" the profits from the cars and stand to lose by the depreciation at the end of eighteen months—the time allotted by Or Scott before we have the electric cars running? For eighteen months, then, we can look forward to the existing state, of affairs —a state which is a. disgrace to the City, and to any body of commercial men allowing it to coutinae. Winter is coming on. Arc we to be packed in.these open cars, or are they to be taken off, and so crowd the remainder that they arc to be worse than they are at present? I assert, notwithstanding Or Scott's repudiation of it, "that the conductors are assisted by the inspectors and their overseers to crowd the cars to their Utmost, as witness the bomjs they give every conductor of 3d in everv £1 that he turns in to the office. Is that 3d in the £ given to'him so that he will see that the cars are not crowded, or is it not as a bonus to him to use his best endeavors to get as many fares as he can?

The tramway officials must know +hat they carry twice their number, for every conductor has to count how many he has on board every trip. I presume these are looked into and reckoned up, «o that they must know when a car has fiity-four on it that they are carrying twenty-two mure than their number. If the car built to carry thirty-two pays when carrying thirtytwo! how much better mast the return when it, carries fifty-four, and surely, if there is a profit on the legitimate number, there must be a correspondingly greater profit on the illegitimate number. Calculating it out thus, 1 am forced to think that the tramways could well afford to put on enough cars and horses to overtake the traffic without encroaching on anything but the past and future profits. They a?e rnnning the trams now at the greatest minimum of cost, and where the horses Iwd to do ihree trips only under the tram company they have now to do five under tne Council.

Someone suggested in tout columns that we had better seek the aid of the Legisla> tore to remedy this evil. T don't know ■whether we ctjnld benefit ourselves by doing so, but for my part T think that every person who has a vote for the ward in which a member of the Tramways Committee resides should remember him on polling day, and relegate l>im to some sphere hj which his talents would sbrne more than in the Council. People who will not learn from what is going on at their elbow waste their time m going to college'—or tire Council table.

In a letter to your columns, someone, ■writing under the nom de plume of "Woman" says that she lias seldom travelled in the cars with gentlemen who ii?e to give their place to a lady. Seldom, indeed, will she find them, as by long experience they are being driven to the last stage of exasperation, and men who are ni business all day donT: get into that tram for the pleasure of hanging on by their eyebrows and paying 2d for the privilege. I once saw in MeTbonrne a \tdy get in. The has was full, and the passengers had all paid their fares. She reached for the smallest and yanked him on to his feet by the ear ana took his seat. She then politely took oat her 3d and handed it to him to pnt in the box, but instead of doing this he stopped the bns, and on going out tnrned to her and said: " There, madam, 1 paid for that *eat before you came in ; now we are quits." He waited for the next bus, and paid his fare with the 3d collected from her.

To relieve the pressure at. certain hours why do not the trams mn the penny sections only—that is, t« Ogg's Corner a'nd Albany street —and liave a few cars waiting there to run the balance of the journey. More than half the people only travel one section, so that if the Council ran two trams the penny portion of the journey V r > one. lor the remainder thy eould carry twice as many people and run twice n« quick.—l am, etc., Nr/Non\AM Do» March 20.