CITY TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25851, 23 May 1945, Page 4

CITY TRANSPORT SYSTEM

There is no longer any publicly-ex-pressed opposition to the utilisation of trolley buses for transport purposes in Dunedin. The cry that the City Council should develop and extend the electric tramway system, the retention of which was a prominent feature of the Labour Party’s programme at the election last year, has been effectually stilled. All that is now contended by those who were then arguing strongly that the existing system was that best suited to the needs of the people of Dunedin and suburbs is that the electric tramways should not be wholly scrapped but that they should be retained on certain routes under a policy providing for the employment, of two or three methods of transport. Necessarily an electric tramway service and a limited service of Diesel buses will continue in use during the period in which the change-over to trolley buses is being effected. The public will thus be afforded the opportunity, rather belatedly, of forming its opinion on the merits of the. various systems and of comparing the one with the others. There should be little doubt, on the experience of other communities, concerning the verdict that will be returned by it. It was fitting, now that the City Council has decided to supersede its electric tramway service by a trolley bus service, that Councillor Taverner should place on record the fact that the late Mr Mackenzie recommended, when he nlled the office of transport manager, the adoption of the policy that is now to be brought into force. The past financial year produced results that were very satisfactory to the Transport Department. It would be a mistake to infer that they will be equally satisfactory in the next year or two. A considerable amount of passenger traffic was driven to the tramways through the restrictions with which the owners of motor cars were faced. There seems to be no immediate likelihood of any material relaxation of these restrictions, but the effect on the tramways revenue will be far from insignificant when the petrol allowance to motorists is increased, and when tyres, now procurable only at what seems to be a false price, are more readily to be purchased. The ' fact that a trolley bus service can be operated more economically than an electric tramway service will lessen the financial shock that will ihave to be suffered by the City I Council through the diminution of | the patronage accorded to its transport system.