TRANSPORT PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19918, 11 April 1928, Page 10

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS.

VISIT OF SYDNEY EXPERT.

CO-ORDINATION OF SERVICES.

INQUIRY INTO LOCAL METHODS.

. A visitor to Auckland from Sydney is Mr. S. A. Maddocks, secretary to the Police Department of New South Wales, and at the present time attached to the Treasury to assist in transport matters. Mr. Maddocks was the executive member of the New South Wales Traffic Advisory Committeo, which has just completed its report to the Government. Ho has been sent to Now Zealand by the Government to gather information regarding what is being done here in the co-ordination of transport services. Mr. Maddocks stated yesterday the Advisory Committee had recommended the Government to establish a ministry of .transport, which would co-ordinate such activities as main roads, railways, tramways, ports, rivers and traffic control. The government was contemplating an immediate step in that direction by the appointment of a transport authority which would separate the tramways from the railways and co-ordinate tram and bus services. It was being realised in New South Wales that transport was too important an activity to be left to the control of separate entities and that the requirements of the State must be stated and worked out on some well-regulated plan instead of being left to various separate interests. "You seem to me to have a very efficient tramway service," said Mr. Maddocks. "Of course, you have nothing approaching the. congestion of traffic here that wo have in Sydney." He had been struck by the fact that all the cars in Auckland wero of tho corridor type. In Sydney there were outside platforms from which tho tickets %ere collected by the conductors. The system allowed many more passengers to be carried, and it had led to very few accidents. It also allowed much quicker loading and unloading. The Auckland trams wero fnuch less noisy than the heavier Sydney ones. Auckland was much freer than Sydney from the parking nuisance in the streets. In Sydney it had been laid down that traffic was a general police responsibility, and one result was that there was on hand a larger body of trained men for any emergency. Mounted police wero used to control slowmoving horse traffic and keep it to the side of the road, and in this they were doing excellent service. Here again the system meant a large body of trained men available in emergency. Mr. Maddocks said he had been favourably impressed with the traffic control in Auckland, and said there was no doubt the men responsible did their work most efficiently. Mr. Maddocks will go on to Wellington toward the end of the week and will return to Auckland to leavo by the Niagara. As he has only three weeks in New Zealand he will not bo able to visit the South Island.