THE MANCHESTER STREET TRAM-LINE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13887, 23 October 1905, Page 10

THE MANCHESTER STREET TRAM-LINE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—There is, I think, a general feeling of disappointment that the Tramway Board should have been able to arrive at no more satisfactory conclusion in regard to the Manchester Street line than that recently reported. At tho latest meeting of the Board a resolution was canned to the effect that, failing the City Council paying its share of the cost of covering in the side channel, or the Minister of Public Works sanctioning the use of the line as already laid, no further action should be taken in the meantime, and, of course, this means the “ hanging up” of the Manchester Street line indefinitely. Meantime, the Board is actually seriously considering the shifting of the line to Madras Street. As a railway station route, Madras Street is absolutely valueless, for who would think of looking for a station car in that thoroughfare? Mr Doiigall remarked at the Board’s last meeting that “they ought to try and ascertain what tho railway traffic was worth.” Personally, he did not think it would ever bo worth very much. • “It was notorious that short sections of tramways to railway stations rarely paid.” And then lie proceeded to advocate a special service from the Square to tho station, as by this plan tli63 T could fairly accurately ascertain the value of the traffic to the railway. Well, if the station traffic is to be confined to the rim from the Square to the station, it probably, never will pay. But why will the Board, or, certain members of the Board, persist in the idea of making the Square, a starting-point for the station? All the trams, from whatever direction, should run to the station, and from the station back to town, because hundreds of people arrive in the city by tram daily ivhose destination is the station, and who do not want to be bothered to change cars at the Square, but to go right on so as to catch trains for Lyttelton and elsewhere, or to meet trains arriving. The station, as has been pointed out by so many other correspondents, should be the centre of the tramway system—the hub of the wheel, the spokes representing the tramlines, because Christchurch is in a different position to any of the other principal centres so far as its railway station is concerned. In Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, the railway stations are all within those cities. In Christchurch the station is some distance from the heart of the town, and we naturally Took to the electric cars to do away with this disadvantage and bring ns into close touch with the station. The Manchester Street traffic, cab and pedestrian, is already very heavy, as might be expected, for this is, of course, the -very shortest way to the station, and this traffic must necessar-_ ily be enormously increased when the Exhibition season opens. I observe the .cost- of shifting the line to Madras Street is estimated at about £IOOO. If that estimate is correct, it follows that the cost- of shifting the Manchester Street line nearer the centre of the road would be somewhat less. Of course, what the Board ought to do is to lay a double track along Manchester Street, and this will inevitably have to be done sooner or later. When it is done, it will soon be found, I think, that the cost has been amply warranted. Meantime, if the Minister of Public Works is appealed to, as is now proposed, and. is fully acquainted with the facts of the situation, I think therg can be little doubt that he will sanction the opening of tTie 15ne_ as it now exists, for, after all, the risk of accident occurring is a very_ remote one, and exists chiefly in the imaginations of those who are opposed to the line. With Carnival W r sek so close at hand, something should certainly be done to get the line in working order, because the loss of revenue, past and prospective, is a very serious matter mdeed.—l am, etc., A BUSINESS MAN.