TRAMWAY AND RAILWAY COMBINATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5564, 28 January 1879, Page 3

TRAMWAY AND RAILWAY COMBINATION.

If Wellington continues to progress at the rapid rate it is now doing—and there is little reason to apprehend that such will not be the case if the Public Works policy initiated by the Vogel administration is carried out to its just and legitimate conclusion—thero is no doubt that a great deal of the space now available for private residences will be monopolised by business establishments, and people will bo forced to provide for themselves places to live in within convenient distances of the capital. Amongst other localities, the Ilutt Valley will naturally attract a good deal of attention, and in view of the large population which will eventually locate itself in that district, the question presents itself of how they are to get to and from their places of business, and what are the cheapest and most expeditious means by which they will bo able to travel between the city and the locality in which they reside. The Railway Department, looking ahead to the increased passenger traffic which will ensue between AVellington and the Lower Hutt, have been, we are informed, in communication with Mr. Rowan respecting engines and steam cars for street tramways and light railways. We believe the result of the correspondence is that the Government have sent Home to Messrs. Kitson and Go., of the Airedale foundry, Leeds, an order for one of Rowan’s patent engines and a couple of steam cars. These oars are each adapted to seat thirty or forty passengers, and to carry besides three or four tons of goods. The engine may be of any power required up to 40 h.p. Taking an engine which will draw, besides the steam car loaded, say, eighty tons on the level, or fifteen tons up 1 in 40, and which will take tho car loaded by itself at the rate of 20 miles per hour, and suppose such a car to make eight trips daily to and from the Lower Hutt Railway Station, the coat of running may be taken as follows : —Driver, lls. ; conductor, 10s. ; share of cleaner, Is. Cd. ; oil, tallow, waste, &c,, 2s, 6d.; repairs, 25.; fuel (say three-quarters of a ton, at 365.), £1 7s. ; total, £2 14s. Mr. Rowan, the agent for Messrs. Bitson and Co., undertakes to deliver such a cur, of first-class manufacture and construction, with iron under-framing, f.o.b. at the port of London, for £1175, supposing the patent condenser is not required. A car to carry 60 passengers inside and out, and with power sufficient to draw another 30-pasaenger car up 1 iu 16 at 6 miles, or on the level at 20 miles per hour, would cost £ll7O, exclusive of patent condenser.

In the present unsettled state of the question as to a central railway station, and the growing necessities of the inhabitants of the I’e Aro portion of the city for greater of transit from one point to another, a suggestion has been thrown out which is worthy of serious consideration at the very least. It is hinted that as soon as the steam cars now ordered by the Government arrive some arrangement might be come to between the Government and the Tramway Company to make the traffiobetweeu Newtown and the Lower Hutt continuous. Although the flange of the railway rails is deeper than that of the tramway, it is considered that the difference will present no difficulty that cannotbe easily overcome. The flange of the former can be altered to accommodate the steam cars, without in the slightest degree interfering with the railway traffic. It would certainly be a great convenience to residents in Newtown and along the tramway line to be able to jump into a car aud be taken to the Lower Hutt without changing. A great many trips could be made each day, and the passenger traffic would be in this manner relieved to such an extent that the regular railway trains would have no occasion to stop at any station between Wellington and the Lower Hutt, because all the goods traffic required between these two points could be performed by the steam cars. If the regular trains were enabled to make fewer stoppages than at present, of course the wear and tear would be so much less. Without inquiring too minutely into the matter, it appears that the project of combining the tramway and railway traffic between Wellington aud the Lower Hutt is worthy of serious attention, and we are glad to hear there is a probability of its being considered by the Tramway Company at an early date.