THE TRAM SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2383, 12 February 1915, Page 6

THE TRAM SERVICE

NEW CARS IN VIEW

OLD DOUBLE-DECKERS TO

BE SCRAPPED

WAR ON CENTRE POLES

MAY DUPLICATE'BROOKLYN LINE

An important statement on the Wellington tramway service was made by the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke)' to a Dominion ' representative yesterday. His Worship covered a great , deal of ground in his observations, and spoke very interestingly as to the future. ■ Mr. Luke said- that absolutely the most important tramway undertaking ahead was the Constable Street extension, on which a start should soon be made, for the civic authorities • were now only waiting for the Order-in-Coun-cil which would give them permission to proceed. It had already . been decided that the spoil . from the work .would be deposited near, the top of Crawford Road for the purpose of considerably widening that thoroughfare. The tram track is to be furnished with a double set of rails, and will junction ou to the main line near the. post office at Soutli Kilbirnie. The present Constable Street line will be duplicated, and the proposal of the City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton) ,is that some of tho. footpath shall be taken. away,-so as to increase the space available for tram and other vehicular traffic. When this is done Constable Street will be ; very much smilar in the matter of width, etc., to Upper Willis Street: "Another pressing need," said, the Mayor, "and one that . can hardly be placed secondary to anything is more i tramcars. Cars 'numbering up to 103 are now'aavilable. The aim is, under ' present. conditions, to get ■,about 120 cars available for traffis. , Authority will need to bo given by the City Council for any new cars in addition to those now being turned out, but I there is no doubt that the. necessary authority will be forthcoming, because it is impossible to handle the growing traffic without a larger carrying capacity than wo have at present. - Tho City's Crowing Traffic. "It is, of course, well known that tho carrying capacity of our trams has been considerably reduced through the necessity for putting the oentre isle through the cars'. Not only must the changed conditions in that respect be overtaken, but the constantly growing needs for rapid transit must be met: by the authorities.' The making and turning out of cars from our workshops wffl depend largely upon the coming to hand of the special ;work which has had to -be obtained from England—the steel frame work and wheels. These are parts which must be imported as, up to the present time ; no New Zealand firm has specialised ,in catering for this sid§ of the requirements of municipal undertakings. ' The work of making the bodies of the cars is well in hand, and as soon as the' under-gear comes to hand rapid progress will he made in putting .tho new vehicles on the track." The gear'which has been ordered from England has been delayed somewhat through the disorganisation which the war has occasioned. However, it is hoped that it will reach here shortly. Every effort is being made to get additional cars on the road by Easter in. order •to deal with the heavy' traffic which will face tho tramway management at that time.

New Device by Mr. W. H. Morton,

One of the prinoipal tramway undertakings in hand at present is extensive alterations to the tram sheds and workshops at Newtown. Economy and-speed, it is considered, will be gained by these alterations. A little while ago there wero sixteen cars off tho pite at Newtown carsheds during night time, nine of which cars were entirely outside the building, «o that a number of : cars .were ' not properly housed, and could not be properly attended to. Moreover, this number was bound to increase. This fact emphasised the desirability of going ahead with the erection of fresh, accommodation at the earliest date possible. The .Mayor .'said yesterday'that the new sheds would not only be r of considerable size, but' of a character which would permit of the installation of the machinery of such a kind as to aid very largely the construction of new cars and the maintenance of all cars much more expeditiously, and economically than can be done under the present conditions. • "One of the present difficulties," continued' Mr. Luke, "is that of finding housing room, for the cars, and pits for the inspection of them when repairs may be necessary. In the new .proposals it is provided that at tho southern end of the present tramway shed, and between the present and the new shed, there will run a transverse tramline, the length of which will be the width of the sheds., Then, when a car has to be moved from on? place.to another, it will simply be run on to the transverse table and from there slid along 'to any. line in the opposite shed, and run on to that line. In that way the old system of shunting all the cars in the shed about in order to get a car out from among a group will be obviated. At' present they, have to shunt cars away down, the decline, in the yard, and, of course,, afterwards replace them. This all means a great deal of work, and means, too, that the administration is hampered,' and that cars under repair are kept out of their ordinary running a great, deal longer than they should be, and are lost to the service for much longer than they will be under the new system." This new transverse platform was designed by Mr. W. H. Morton (the City Engineer), and is considered to be a great improvement on the revolving, platform system.

The Brooklyn Route,

"As a personal opinion," the Mayor added, "1 may say that I think that one of the matters. Which will engage the council very soon will be the scrappin" of t'he old double-deckers, which wero brought out at the time the un-. dertaking was' commenced. They will be replaced with cars of the bogey type. The old cars are now so shaky as to be not only uncomfortable ■ for the passengers, but very unsteady and rickety for the conductors who have to work them. These curs have done remarkably good service, but I don't think the patrous of the service will regret their, removal, or their replacement by better cars. Neither will the conductors nor the motormen be sorry when the better cars axe ready, ."Considerable work has been done recently by way of the romoval of cen-tre-poles in Lower Cuba Street, and Courtonay Place. As soon as funds permit. the centre-poles in other streets will' give way, to the span wires. I am uure everyone will bo glad oi that. This is one of the matters in which we have profited by experience, and Wellington is not alone in realising that centrepoles are a great disadvantage, an inconvenience, and a danger, -and that their speedy removal is highly desirable. . "In connection with the tramway undertaking to Brooklyn matters are now being developed by removing a great drawback to that particular suburb; the road is being widened. When the ne.w road now being constructed adjacent to tho tramline'is completed and it junctions with Ohiro Road,'it will make a, great improvement. My opinion is thai'tho council will at a very early rinte decido duplicato tho Brooklyn trwnliua."- sj