THE PASSING OF THE TRAM

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 2 May 1925, Page 24

THE PASSING OF THE TRAM

A BRITISH CITYtS EXPERIENCE. In view of local discussions interest attaches to the passing by an English company, the Sunderland District Electric Tramways, Ltd., of a resolution to substitute motor-buses for trams. The chairman remarked : “The undertaking was in the throes of a revolutionary change, which had been forced on them by the success of tfie internal-combustion engine. From the moment that this engine became firmly established as a means of propelling omnibuses, electric tramways were faced with a rival before which they were bound, sooner or later, to succumb. The directors decided to recommend the abandonment of the tramways ijnd to establish in place thereof a fullyequipped omnuibus service.” From the chairman’s subsequent remarks, it appears that this company have been gradually effecting the change over by substituting motorbuses on sections of their tramway system with satisfactory results, finding work for the tramway men under the altered conditions, and it was stated that they had so far- not had occasion to dispense with the services of any man. “Every year,” remarked an English motor trade authority recently,” marks' an advance upon the previous years in automobile design and workmanship, and I do not thick it is an exaggeration to say that .within the next ten years we shall have a reliable, entirely British built, twe-seater car selling at the moderate figure of £50.”