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Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 238, 5 July 1944, Page 4

It is proposed that the City Council should invite Sir William Goodman, of Adelaide, who has been investigating and reporting upon the Dunedin municipal transport system, to accept a similar commission for Wellington. The order of reference suggested is to include a report on tlie existing system, the substitution of a trolley-bus system, and a new transport plan embodying both systems. Tramway transport is becoming obsolete in a number of English and American cities, its place being taken by electric trolley buses or petrol buses, or a combination of the two. This process of transition, in keeping with the demands of modern public transport in cities and suburbs, is also going on in Australia. Sir William Goodman lias recommended the Dunedin municipality, at present faced with considerable expenditure in the reconditioning of its tramway tracks, Io take a bold step and scrap the system in favour of trolley buses. As, topographically, there are many points of resemblance between Dunedin and ■Wellington, he may be led to a similar conclusion in regard to the transport system here. In any case, however, various practical questions are bound to arise from the basic one of transition from one system to another, and any change of this magnitude would be out of the question during tho currency of the war and for some time after. Investigation and repott in the meantime would, nevertheless, be of value as a basis for decision and future action. Municipal transport difficulties, accentuated by the lag of maintenance and equipment renewals owing to the war, and the steadily growing population of tlie city and suburbs, constitute a problem tli.it must bo faced, and the new council is pledget! to do something about it.