ELECTRIC STREET TRAMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 2

ELECTRIC STREET TRAMS.

GIVING WAY TO BUSES. EXPERIENCE OF OTHER PARTS. {Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, February 18. “ The electric street tramway is under sentence of death,” said Mr L. V. Moses, architect, of Auckland, who returned by the Maunganui this morning from a trip abroad. “In stating that rail traction should be banned from British streets,” he added, “the Transport Commission is only following public opinion, which has for long condemned this method of transport as cumbersome, inelastic, and inefficient.” In an increasing number of towns, he said, the trams had already given place to motor buses, which were now wonderfully mobile, large, and efficient, and which removed people expeditiously from the streets, thus aiding the general traffic. In certain towns, such as Hastings, for instance, trackless trolley cars were running successfully, and the commission suggested that they could be used to advantage during the transition period from the railcar to the motor bus. In motoring about England, Mr Moses was astounded at the number of discarded rail tracks he came across. “ One cannot fail to observe, however, that much as the motor buses are favoured in congested and thickly-populated areas, they are even more used where the population is scattered, as in Auckland,” said Mr Moses.