CITY TRAMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 36

CITY TRAMS.

COMPETITION BY MOTOR CARS. The following comment by the town clerk (Mr G. A. Lewin) on the running of the trams in Dunedin should prove of general interest: — •• Tramways, the -world over, are experiencing great difficulties in showing a net surplus comparable with their results of past years. It is pretty generally felt that the private motor car is the chief cause of the altered financial standing of a tramway service. If that be the cause, and I know of no other cause, then it would seem that a public local authority owning a tramway service finds itself much in the position of the traditional person who ‘ burns the candle at both ends.’ On the one hand, it is called upon to spend immense sums on the yearly maintenance of its streets, due to the disruptive traffic of the motor ear; jt is likewise called upon to spend considerable sums in providing parking places for the same class of vehicle —a privilege too often abused—while at the other end of the ‘ candle ’ the same local' authority is left to contemplate a gradually diminishing net income in its transport service, caused largely, if not chiefly, by this highly fashionable and modern means of transport. The position would seem to call for some adjustment, and some day no doubt a start will be made by the total prohibition of so-called parking on the public streets, thereby permitting our highways to revert to their legitimate use.”