TRAMS MUST FAIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 273, 8 February 1928, Page 1

TRAMS MUST FAIL

VIEWS OF OMNIBUS EXPERT ADVICE TO DOMINION By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. Reed. 10.40 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. Mr. R. W. Gunter, consulting engineer to the London General Omnibus Company, who arrived from Auckland by the Marama, says that buses will eventually supersede trams. All the fixed-rail systems in the world are faced with ruination by bus competition, and unless some form of co-operation and co-ordination is reached tramway finances will become chaotic. Mr. Gunter frankly admitted the impracticability of scrapping the entire tramway service, but with the inevitability of the buses dominating the roads something had to be done. His suggestion to the New Zealand Government was, he thought, the only one —that for the present the tramway system must be regarded as the backbone of the transport system, with buses operating as feeders to the general system; and the establishment of a sinking funds, so that eventually the trams could be replaced with standardised buses. For this some form of central control was essential. Dual control was fatal. Another suggestion was a penal fare where buses were obliged to charge a minimum fare in excess of the tram fare, portion of which could be handed over to the trams. It was found that this penal fare did not deter buses from operating.—A. and N.Z.