TRAMWAY EXTENSIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19271, 8 September 1924, Page 6

TRAMWAY EXTENSIONS.

Marking the completion of the first extension of the municipal tramway system to be undertaken since the war, the opening of the line to Opoho on Saturday afternoon was an event of general importance as well as of particular interest to the residents in the district that will be peculiarly benefited. It is not officially anticipated that the line to Opoho will prove a profitable enterprise from the beginning. Indeed, the estimate is that it will entail a loss of about £2400 per annum. We are sanguine enough to believe that that estimate will he found to be extravagant. The extent to which the line will not prove profitearning may be doubtful, and it will in any case be difficult to calculate the result with any degree of precision,- since by virtue of its being a “ feeder ” the line will necessarily contribute to the earnings of the tramway system as a whole. It is clearly possible that the loss that may be held to be due to the operation of the line, if the fares collected on the rout© between the Botanic Gardens and the terminus at Opoho are to be a basis of the calculation, may be overstated. But it is not to be expected that tramway . extensions should invariably yield a profit from the day on which they are opened for traffic. They achieve a useful purpose in encouraging settlement in the district which they serve and thus in relieving the congestion in the more thickly-populated areas. It can scarcely be doubted that the purpose of the promotion of suburban development will be fulfilled by the opening of the tramway to Opoho, and the City Council will itself gain as the effect of the increased value that property will acquire. In congratulating the inhabitants of Opoho upon the facilities of transit that have now been made available to them, we express the hope that the experience of the operation of this extension will be such as to impress the City Council strongly with a sense of the desirability of a policy of progressive development of the tramway system.