CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1936, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

REPLACING LONDON TRAMS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—in view of the proposal to expend a large sum of money in laying tram tracks in Sydney Street, the enclosed cutting from a recent London newspaper, received by me two days ago from a relative liviijg there, may be of interest to your readers. The decision of the London authorities will probably have some efTect upon other tramway undertakings which may be considering further extensive replacements of tracks. —I am, etc., ANTI-TRAMS. Tho cutting enclosed is in part as follows:— Mr. Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, is determined to rid London as quickly as possible of its hundreds of miles of tramway lines. A start has already been made, and It is hoped that within the next six months 200 miles of tramway tracks will have disappeared, and be replaced by trolleybuses. The new trolleybus route from Shepherd's Bush to Hammersmith, and on to Hounslow via KeW,. was put into operation last week. There are 25 buses on these routes, the forerunners of 125 that have already been ordered, and are now being built in London and Manchester. Immediate plans that have been approved involve the scrapping of 149 miles of tramway tracks and their replacement with trolleybuses.

The writer was informed at the Ministry of Transport that electric standards are being erected and that services will start in the next three months on the following routes —Sutton to Crystal Palace via Croydon; Woolwich to Bexley Heath via Erith; Woolwich to Dartford via Welling. Powers are to be asked, in conjunction with the London Passenger Transport Board, to substitute certain routes in the Central London area. These are centred on the present tramway terminus at the Holborn end of Gray's Inn Road. The tramcars now running to Hampstead, Finchley, Parliament Hill. Fields, and Waltham Cross will b* replaced by luxurious trolleybuses with armchair seats and special ventilation.