Extensions and Facilities Needed

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 113, 3 August 1927, Page 13

Extensions and Facilities Needed

TRAMWAYS LOAN ADDRESS ON PROPOSALS “The tramway business is not one that can be folded up and put away and forgotten about,” said Mr. J. A. C. Alium, chairman of the Tramways Committee of the City Council, addressing a Juncheon meeting of the Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society yesterday. Of the citizens' money, £1,750,000 were invested in the system. The criticism that the buses have come, and the trams can go, was a sample of the kind of criticism that could do no good. The citizens would have to put more capital into it, or someone else would come along and take what had been built up, and what was in it for the future. The tramway loan should not be put forward as worthy solely as an absorbent of unemployment. But 130 men would have to be put off before September if it were not carried. At present uneconomic buses were running to the places were extensions were proposed. The single-decker buses, experts agreed, could not compete with tramways. These extensions would lose money for the first two or three years, but that had been anticipated in other proposals. A_t present there was a continuous loss through buses. Regarding Point Chevalier extension, the population there had increased two or three times since 1922, when the proposal was first mooted. It was justified more now than then. The bus to Remnera was a failure, and so the tramway extension was proposed. The extension was justified three years ago, when the loan was raised, and so it was more justified now. Edendale. Mount Eden, and Dominion Road routes were proposed for extension to Mount Albert Road on account of the increase in population there. The system was deficient in facilities for handling traffic. Loops were proposed for Quay Street and Carlaw Park. It was also intended to abandon and close up all the bus garages, and build a big shed for overhauls in Mount Roskili, and another central garage. Then £152,000 was set aside in the loans for 50 new tramcars to replace old vehicles.