SYDNEY TRANSPORT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 7

SYDNEY TRANSPORT

PRIVATE MONOPOLY.

BUS AND TRAM SERVICES.

' Sydney, Nov. 25.

One of the political events of the week has been the production of the Transport Advisory Committee’s report, which has now been tabled in the Assembly. The committee’s recommendations are certainly sweeping and comprehensive enough. They involve the ( abandonment of certain tram services and their replacement by bus service, the cessation of a certain amount of projected railway -construction in the suburbs, and the creation of a public utility company with a 25 years’ franchise to conduct both bus and tram services. The. objection to this last proposal—the establishment of a great private monopoly to which the trams, now owned by the community, would be transferred —is so obvious that the committee has suggested two possible alternatives. One is that the Government should buy out the. bus proprietors and conduct the two services jointly—but this the committee does not recommend. The other is that while the Government retains control of the trams, the bus services should be taken over by a public utility transport corporation, to handle exclusively all omnibus transport in the metropolitan area. The Government, of course, would be represented on the directorate of this body by members, Who would be expected to watch over the interests of the State and the general public. The whole scheme is, of course, highly controversial, and the strong objections already raised in various quarters to any proposals that would involve the dismissal of large numbers of tramway men, the establishment of a great transport monopoly, or the transfer of the trams to private hands, make it already certain that the report will need very careful consideration and probably extensive modification by Parliament. At all eVents the report is an honest attempt at coordinating the public transport services, and to that extent at least it-is a step in the right direction. It is most improbable that Parliament would consent to the sale of the tramways, but the bus services may now be expected to operate side by side with the trams, on properly organised lines, to the general public advantage.