BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 8

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

&ir — Those who run the Auckland tram* 1 ways appear to be acting as though I they had killed ’bus opposition tor i all time. But have they? If tho ( people of Auckland are going to put { up with the inconvenience of tb# j service and the resurrected arrogance I of its employees, then they are a tamer lot than I take them to be. We were assured when the private j ’buses were taken over that the tramways service would be better ] than ever, and that it would be ade- j quate to deal with all requirement* 1 even at rush hours. Indeed the | authorities showed on paper how | they could and would do it. Yob have only to watch the trams in the ? rush hours to see how it is done— , how the public is done! It is the old tale of a fight for a Eeat —for even standing room. On the morning journey in, it is as bad as the eves* • ing journey out- You pay for a seat, I and you stand and have your corns | crushed, hustled every minute by a | conductor who has dropped the “by- | order*’ politeness which astonished I the natives when the ’buses were giving the tram people something to j think about, or by inspectors who push their way through crowded | trams with such persistence and in such numbers and frequency as to suggest that every passenger is suspected as a fare-beater. The overcrowding is a disgrace, the alleged 1 ten-minute service on some of the lines is a myth, the trams are of a pattern quite unsuited- for the rapid handling of traffic, there are no alternate routes or transfer "system j —and the authorities have the astonishingly audacious egotism to declare that the Auckland tramway system is one of the best in the ; world!—“Time for Change.” TIME FOR CHANGE.