ROUTE NUMBERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2410, 16 March 1915, Page 6

ROUTE NUMBERS

-o ■ ■■ FOE WELLINGTON TRAMOARS. In Christchurch there exists a system of numbering each tramcar : according to the terminus it is travelline towards, in order that anyone may be able-at some considerable distance to identify the' particular car they intend travelling by. The numbers, which are painted white on a black background, are about eighteen mches in depth, and are placed on the.roof in the front and back of the car, that "he who runs may read." A variation of that system is being adopted in Well in cton, but instead of the numbers ebing on the roof they are to be placed in front of the glass shield. This number will onlv indicate the route, not the terminus—that is to say, that a car number might indicate the Island Bay- route, but it would not necessarily mean that it was going to Island Bav. liie exigencies of the traffic might warrant the car being turned back from Borliampore, so the destination boards would still be required to locate the destination of a car. The big-number system worked verv well in Christchurch, where every route branched off from a common route (Cathedral Square), but in Wellington cars traverse different routes to a certain ooint. as in the case of the Constable Street cars and the Newtown cars. Both were bound, for Newtown, but one went by way of Jervois Quny and the. other bv Lambton Onav. This is stated to show how awkward it would be to have a number for a given terminus, but. people seeing the route number will at once know' what streets the call's to traverse to reach a given terminus. With the route number, destination board, and light signals fat night"), the tramwavs manager (Mr. W. H. Morton)' imagines thatthere should be n,o cause for people mistaking their ears f bv day or night.