COMFORT IN TRAMCARS

Southland Times, Issue 21090, 23 May 1930, Page 2

COMFORT IN TRAMCARS

LUXURY FOR LONDONERS. London now has new luxury tramcars that are able to climb hills faster than any electric tramcar yet built for the London County Council services. It is proposed to introduce fifty of these special hill-climbers on the Dog Kennel route, where the gradient is in places as steep as 1 9. Two experimental cars of the new type have been running between Camberwell and Catford for some time. They have done well enough to convince the officials that, when the new cars are available, the speed on the Victoria to Blackwall Tunnel routes can be improved from nine miles to nine and three-quarter miles an hour, which is the rate on the normal London services. The new hill-climbing tramcar carries 74 passengers instead of the 60 carried by the old type. ‘lt will have upholstered seats inside and on the covered top-deck, and all the latest improvements in the lighting. In addition tb the 50 hill-climbers, 100 other new tramcars are on order to replace old-type tramcars, some of which have done over 25 years’ work. .-“The tramcar carrying 74 people is not the biggest we have had in London,” said an official of the' Tramways Department. “We have had some cars with accommodation for 78, but the new design, by sacrificing a few .seats, will give increased comforts