THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, October 20, 1936. TRAM AND BUS SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23016, 20 October 1936, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, October 20, 1936. TRAM AND BUS SERVICES

From correspondence that has been appearing in our columns it is evident that the substitution of motor bus for tram transport on what is known as the Maori Hill extension line has not given an equal measure of satisfaction to all users of the service. Individual opinion on the question whether the new service represents an improvement or not may depend on the extent of the adherence to a time table. The main issue cannot now be raised to much purpose. There can be no return to the former system, as the tram rails have been lifted, though there does seem to be some point in the contention of a correspondent that there was no occasion for the haste shown in the removal

of the permanent way. A larger issue altogether is being raised, however, in the suggestion that the City Council is pondering or contemplating the substitution of buses for certain hill cable tramways. At last meeting of the Council questions were asked by Councillor Cameron to which the acting chairman of the Tramways Committee replied that a proposal to try out buses on the Maryhill route at an early date had been abandoned, but that on the Roslyn route the Committee might go the length of experimenting with buses. Upon this important hill route the service is being maintained, no doubt experimentally, on Sundays at the present time by buses. But Sunday traffic and week-day traffic on this line are very different matters. The writer of one of the letters which we have published has mentioned various points that enter into the consideration of the efficiency of a bus service as a substitute for the present cable service, and some of them appear to be distinctly pertinent. It is admitted that the plant which operates the Roslyn trams is “in bad shape.” It is upon this account that the Tramways Committee is the more disposed to consider the feasibility of making a change. It is patent, moreover, that the Roslyn service presents a difficult problem —one which the Council has never had the courage to tackle—in another aspect. We refer to that of the serious overcrowding of which the service has for years provided an example at peak-loading times. In that respect the service is thoroughly unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, it must bd an open question, as one of our correspondents has suggested, whether buses would meet the requirements on this route to better purpose than the cable cars do or meet them gven as well. It is difficult to believe that the heavy Corporation buses could be depended on to negotiate the steep grades of Rattray street without serious difficulty during the winter season when frost and snow may be encountered; It is unnecessary, however, to pursue the problematical considerations in the case. A point reasonably made is that the ratepayers have an interest in these matters which entitles them to expect to be taken into the confidence of the City Council in respect of proposals that may be. receiving the attention of that body. The Council has not yet made any definite announcement of its policy in respect of the Roslyn service, which constitutes its outstanding transport problem. It may as yet have nothing definite in view. But it is clearly desirable that it should let the public know what is in its mind, and what it may be contemplating, in order that there may be a useful discussion of any proposals put forward, and that those who have representations to make on the subject may have an opportunity of submitting them to the Council,