HILL TRANSPORT

Evening Star, Issue 26185, 21 August 1947, Page 10

HILL TRANSPORT

Sir, —Your numerous correspondents have succeeded in straightening out the Wakari bus mix-up, for the time being anyway. What would we do without the correspondence column? One has to be very vocal these days to keep pace with* the exploiter, the incompetent, and others. However, we have not heard from West ißoslyn and West Kaikorai or Maori Hill, and it is logical that the hill transport problem should be . tackled as a whole. The stoppage of the Stuart street car has begun to show up the deficiencies of the service to the hill residents, and when the Rattray street oar also stops, these deficiencies . will be accentuated. The much-maligned cable cars provided a satisfactory transport on a defined route to a defined distributing centre, and passengers knew exactly where they were. It is a bad transport policy to ask self-propelling vehicles to face a very steep hill with a full load. The maintenance costs are going to be very heavy. What is wanted - is a service to take the place of the' cable cars to carry maximum loads on maximum grades. The answer to this is wire rope transport in its modern version —the elevator with no bends or dips, one straight pull from top to bottom of the hill, and at high speed. Trolly buses might be the answer to all our transport problems—perhaps! (with emphasis on both syllables).—J am, etc., W. d. Kempthorne. August 20.