THE OBSOLETE TRAMWAY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—The Tram versus Bus controversy has been raging recently, and it is surely time that the plain man realized the truth. The two pleas for the retention of the trams are : (1) that they are a cheap and convenient form of transport and (2) that they are actually in, possession of many of our important thoroughfares. The reasons for their abolition are more numerous and will in the end, I am convinced, prove more urgent.
Trams have always complicated traffic, and in these days of multiplying cars the complication is serious.
The ordinary driver on the highway has always regarded the tram as a • necessary evil. He has naturally ' felt that the smooth slippery surface of the rails mid the flange-grooves Were a Menace to other vehicles, and that the Place for a car- On rails is on a track of its own.
. If a ear:driver wishes to overtake a tram, in the orthodox way, 'on the rigid, he hai to pull out to the wrong' side of the road. If he attempts to "pass, as he may, on the left, the tram may stop, in which case the mounting and dismounting passengers will block his passage. To the humble cyclist, of course, the tram was always a very real danger.
So long as the tram was the only cheap means of road tranaport, motorists, and cyclists were willing to endure discomfort for the sake of - the travelling majority. But since the days when trams were first installed, conditions have changed. Motor-buses have improved out of all recognition. They are comfortable, smooth running, " flexible " in traffic, and leave no tracks behind them. They can 'draw up to the kerb=a fact which is to the advantage of everyone concerned, for the danger of alighting from a vehicle which stops in the middle of the road is realized as much by the tram-passenger as by the motorist or cyclist. In fact, trams, which were always an anomaly, are. now 'an -anachronism.
It is scarcely necessary. to lay stress on the fact that trams are -a positive disfigurement. A single illustration is enough to bring this home with striking force. -Suppose the authorities -,–whose wisdom and farsightedness we have cause to bless— had allowed trams to violate our incomparable West .End ! Can we entertain, without a shudder, the notion of trams in. Piccadilly Circus or Regent Street ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
Parkwern, Pembroke Road, Sevenoaks.
A. M. SAYERS.
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