RAILWAYS, TRAMS, AND BUSES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 133, 3 December 1930, Page 10

RAILWAYS, TRAMS, AND BUSES

(To the Editor.) Sir,—-Perhaps a few lines on the subject of railways, trams, and buses may not be out of place, especially when the wisdom of laying down trams through the new Victoria Tunnel, or the disturbance of bodies in the Sydney Street Cemetery, or the compulsory acquisition of the properties of old residents near there, is being very much questioned. An interesting sidelight is thrown on the cost of the Lower Hutt suburban railway line, which amounted to £300,000, with the barren result of bringing into town 4000 persons ia the morning and taking them back in, the evening, consuming the time of two hours there and back. A simple calculation will show that 50 buses, at a total cost of £40,000, being about one-eighth of the cost of the railway, would have served the purpose better, inasmuch as they would take up and put down passengers nearer their homes, arid not cause them to congregate at railway stations and pay buses to convey them there! This is the reason why many local bodies throughout the Empire have scrapped trams and put on the more economical and useful buses. It will take, however, some time to persuade the Wellington City Council to follow this practice, as witness the long fight the Roseneath residents had with them to stop tlie laying down of a cable tram or lifts. The result *is that they now have a good motor and bus road to their doors. Again by widening the existing Northland road, buses would have served the district better, and saved an enormous sum of money. In conclusion I am not interested in any bus company, nor in any property near the Sydney Street Cemetery, but endeavour to keep up to the times by observation and reading.— I am, etc., -v-