SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1900. MUNICIPAL TRAMWAYS. Some Reforms Necessary.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 14, 6 October 1900, Page 6

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1900. MUNICIPAL TRAMWAYS. Some Reforms Necessary.

THE change in our tramway service from private to municipal ownership has not come a day too soon. For a long time past, the Wellington people have been dissatisfied Avith the management. It was made too apparent that the public convenience was a minor consideration, and what between insufficient accommodation, disobliging officials, and a general indifference to the wishes and comfort of the patrons of the trams, the citizens have had a great deal to put up with. Let us hope the change in control will bring about the desired reform in administration. # * * One utter absurdity of the recent management was the system of stopping places. There is a small finger post to indicate where the trams stop to pick up and put down passengers, and though these signs may be discovered by strangers and others in the daytime, there is absolutely no means of locating them at night. But the drivers will only stop at these places. Thus the trams have of late been almost useless at night to all except those who knew the stopping places, unless they happened upon them by chance. This has given rise to great annoyance and inconvenience. # • * It has been a common thing late at night recently to see an almost empty tram careening rapidly along Lambton Quay with quite a crowd of passengers, chiefly ladies from the House, in anxious pursuit, and the driver and guard jeering or enjoying the sport. This is wrong. The trams are for

the convenience of- the public, and though the stopping place system is a proper one, it should be slackened to meet such emergencies as these, or else some means should be employed, as in other places, to enable would-be passengers to find the stopping places easily by means of distinguishing lamps. The visitors to the House are frequently strangers who have no knowledge of the stopping places, and no means of finding them in the darkness. # # # Scarcely a fortnight ago, a tram with only two passengers inside deliberately passed a crowd of nearly a dozen people who had been waiting patiently for it, and though the stopping place happened to be scarcely fifty yards further on the driver would not wait till the group overtook the tram, but drove on at a break-neck pace, passing other groups with equal indifference. No one can argue that such a system of running the trams is satisfactory. It is simply running them in the interests of the guards and drivers, who care nothing what the receipts are, or whether the public are inconvenienced, so long as they are not put to trouble. # # * If the stopping place system is to continue, these points should be marked by distinguishing litmps, which could easily be found at night. Another desirable reform is the introduction of penny sections. It is preposterous to charge the same fee for 100 yards as for three miles, besides which it deters people from travelling the shorter distance, and spoils business. However, now that the tramways have come under the control of the municipality, there is a reasonable prospect of necessary reforms being made, for which the citizens of Wellington will be devoutly thankful.