ELECTRIC TRAMS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143787, 10 May 1912, Page 7

ELECTRIC TRAMS.

(To the Editor.!' Sir,—Congratulations on your advocacy of tele electric trams and your "kuocK-out” to Mr. iiewioy, as evidenced by the rather laboured sarcasm ot Ins mini contribution. Touching on the u anganui venture, it is quite true that lor very many years the rates or tiie borough' will not bo met Irom the tramway profits; but it is equally true Unit the people are thuruugniy convinced that the utility jusiuied me expenditure, as is shown by uie iait that at the present time the hue is being duplicated from tluo> railway station along Taupo Quay and Victoria Avenue, the unisluiig touches are being put on the lino to Gonville and Castloolilt (sonic live miles, including loops), a new route to Eastowii is decided on and will he proceeded with as soon as reasonable progress has been made with the now bridge, extensions up St. John’s Hill and along the river bank from the Arumoho terminus are held up principally by impossible stipulations of the Hallway Department, and there is under consideration an extension across the river and up Durie Hill (with tea-rooms at the terminus). It is also safe to assume that a majority of those who voted for Mr. Mackay at the recent Mayoral election did so because of his strenuous fight for electric trams and against the very class of locomotion Mr. Rowley favours. The contention of "Undecided” that a motorbus can go into any street is probably correct, but—they don’t; they keep to their routes like any other class ot vehicle, and certainly in London the drivers wouldn’t go out of their track by turning a street corner for a full load of passengers. A haphazard system of “going along any street” would not permit of running to a time-tablo, and a system without a time-table is not wanted. In view of the statement of your correspondent (which 1 will not deny) that motorbuses are cheaper than trams, it does Boem strange that no motor company from end to end of the United Kingdom carries passengers as cheaply (I refer to fares) as Glasgow’s municipal electric trams, which model system is closely followed by Manoho,ster, Liverpool, and others, where the motorbus does not seem to have even a hope of introduction. I suppose you have grasped the humour of the suggestion that what is (rood for London is just the thing for New Plymouth. Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of the subject knows that in the busy thoroughfares of a big city the speed of a tram may bo anything from four to six miles an hour,' this being duo to obstruction, which in turn is partly caused by the exigencies of the traffic and largely by the “sheer cussodness” of drivers of other vehicles. Tho principal obstruction to a motorbus is the traffic policeman, hence its superiority in certain parts of London, particularly that "square mile” known as the City. Incidentally, the ’bus uses power along tho entire route between tho termini, which is not the case with a tramcar. While there are electric tramways systems in the world representing hundreds of millions sterling, Now Plymouth needn’t worry about the prospect of having to scrap a few thousand pounds’ worth; 'indeed, ore tho necessity for that arises I believe,New Plymouth will bo a suburb of Stratford. Hoping you will continue -q keep the subject alive,—l am, etc., DECIDED.