THE TRAMWAY SYSTEM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4817, 14 March 1918, Page 6

THE TRAMWAY SYSTEM.

(To the Editor.) g; r —The decision of the Borough Council at Tuesday’s meeting.simply amounts, as you pointed out m your leading article, to ringing the deatliknell of'the car service. Now, as a constant user of the trams, I urn able to throw some light on the. 'bungling policy which has resulted in the storage 'battery system getting into such odium. 1 should like to remark at the outset that though there aro certain disadvantages in connection with the cars, they are capable of “delivering the goods,” as a councillor calls it, in sut-li a town as Gisborne if properly looked after. The seat of the present trouble is not in the cars, but in the track, and I venture to say that no system of tramways would stand the bumping and banging which ensues from running over such a badly-con-structed! lino. Tho first essential for successful tramways is a smooth-ly-laid track on solid foundations. Go out into Gladstone Road and inspect our alleged track. You will find that- it is simply a series of switchbacks and pot, holes, with the result that the wheels of the cars Wear flat in a short time, and then the ensuing bumping over a flat wheel strains and shakes the cars to Then the old cars were so badly assembled that the rain penetrated them and did enormous damage to the batteries, and, in addition, they were habitually overloaded. Despite all this, however, the two cars ran continuously, with hardly a break, until about six months ago, when the new car arrived. The authorities took advantage of the arrival of No. 3 car to scrap one of the older cars, which only requires new batteries to give it another lea:e of life, and continued the service with the new car and the remaining old one. A flat wheel about six weeks ago put the old car out of commission, and! the service since has been carried out solely by the new car, which has been literally run to death. I have seen it carrying not less than 90 passengers on a Saturday night after the pictures, and no car will stand that sort of abuse. The position now is that the ne.w car is showing signs of strain, while one of the old ones has been roughly patched up. The following are some of tho facts which Cr. Mumis might inquire into:— (1) The cars run quickly enough for all purposes. In fact, they cifver i'-lie journey from the P.O. to Stanley Road and vice versa in much under schedule time, which allows lengthy waits at both terminii. (2) The track is faulty, which jars the cars unnecessarily and lessens their efficiency, (3) The two original cars, although badly assembled and not properly understood, ran well for about five years, and would still be, running if given a thorough overhaul. (4) When the new car arrived -the authorities did not take the opoortunitv of repairing the old ones, one at a time, but laid up one car permanently. With three cars on the present track they could he thoroughly overhauled in turn week and week about and would probably last for years. (5) Owing to tlie fact that only one car has been running for -fix weeks, much custom lias been lost, especially on Saturday nights, when the picture car is unable, to transport more than half the people waitiig for a lift. This means loss of revenue. (6) The present short length of line cannot he expected to p.vy interest and sinking fund on ihe cost of the whole projected service. (7) A half-hour service—as lias been the case during the past six weeks —is only a joke. Imagine a man bound for, say. East’s Corner waiting half an hour icr a car when he could walk in five minutes! Hus also means loss of revenue. (S) Although only one car has been running for six weeks the wages bill amounts to £37 15s 2d r fortnight or £lB 17s Old per week, inis one car lias run 540 miles per week ana lias carried 4873 passengers per week for a return of £32 12s. Surely, under proper management, that car paid its way! That is, without ilia awful millstone of £lB 17s 6}d toi wages. . . . Let Councillors inquire if it is not a fact that for six weeks at least one car lias been sent out on a nadhourly time-table to earn enough to keep the whole show running. Anyone can make inquiries into tlie statements I have set out above, and if they are as correct as 1 belike, 1 defv the Mayor to talk of efficiency. The Councillor who said th-it i- a private business man installed a machine which turned out to be a 1 allure, he would scrap it, was simp'y talking wind. Such a business-man would inquire and find out what "as up with the machine or ds uperafors and put the matter right. Its oi 1} people handling public mou yv vno airily throw on the scrap-heap costly machinery which has nroved effectire elsewhere.-! ™ y e| gw . ioN