CBD cries out for continuous rail spine

Your editorial (October 3) about Wellington’s high public transport fares and Gerard Anthony’s letter on the same page warning that Wellington is becoming ‘‘the most backward little capital in the world’’ may not seem connected, but they are.

A week in low-fare Melbourne reminds me how essential it is for a modern mobile city to have the main rail transit from the region running through the CBD, not stopping at the edge as it does here. A continuous rail spine here was proposed up to and during the 1990s, but is now denied by the ‘‘small thinking’’ (ie, 1950s highway-obsessed) local councils.

Wellington is almost unique in the world in having a rail transit system that is so incomplete and intending to stay that way (in contrast to, say, Auckland). And using only buses for the passenger transport spine will inevitably mean high fares – because bus operating costs per passenger km on dense routes are up to 50 per cent higher than rail.

BRENT EFFORD 30) points out. Trams are a welldeveloped technology, going for more than 100 years, which served Wellington well until the early 1960s, when Wellington went off the rails for trolley buses.

Since then trams have been improved significantly, by general use throughout most European cities and elsewhere. They take up only two lanes, while buses need four at any stops, and they carry three to six times as many people.

In Australia, Melbourne already has trams as an attractive feature, and is about to expand its system. Sydney, which already has an excellent fast rail system, is moving to reintroduce trams, to replace its clutter of buses in central city streets.

Auckland wants to return roads that were formerly tram lines to trams, for the same reason.

So, now is a great time for Wellington City to follow Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, to improve central city traffic flows with trams. The overhead wires are still there. Let’s hope the usually stick-in-the-mud Greater Wellington Regional Council can catch up with the play and get our trams restarted soon too.

HUGH BARR

NZ Agent Light Rail Transit Association

Karori