aberdeens tram system

A tramway in a modern city to-day is an anachronism. I have an idea that Nottingham has not yet stopped laughing at us for buying her old junk at £90 per tram. To buy new trams is a sheer waste of money, and the sooner the Town Council appreciates this the better. Here is my challenge: an independent expert should be called in to report on the whole question of Tramcar v. Trolley Bus. I am convinced that the trolley would romp home an easy winner by many lengths. The betting would be 20 to 1 on. 

Costly, DangerousThe road bed of a tramway system is very costly to lay and very costly to maintain. A fixed track in a busy public street is a menace to public safety. It causes needless traffic congestion and the needless slowing down of traffic. If the trams were removed from Union Street then for traffic purposes Union Street would be sixteen feet wider. I have heard it said it would be a loss to the town to remove the trams, as the Transport Department has to pay the cost of upkeep of the tram track plus eighteen inches on each side. This is a false argument. If the trams were removed and the street properly formed, maintenance costs would be practically nil. I think I am right in saying that Schoolhill was paved forty-five years ago, and has not been repaired since. This would apply equally well to those streets in Aberdeen where tram tracks now exist. If the City Engineer were to produce statistics he would probably find that a street with a tramway on it requires more maintenance than one without a tramway because of the continual vibration and shock to the foundations of the street, caused by flat wheels, sudden braking, worn and depressed rails, points and crossings, and so on. If an expert were called in to report, and if a comparative estimate of the capitalised cost of Tram v. Trolley were to be published, the citizens of Aberdeen would demand the immediate removal of the entire tramway system. The noisy repair activity on the rails in Union Street is in itself an indictment of the tramway system in our city. The continual deafening vibration of pneumatic drills, the glare of acetylene flames, the untidy impeding heaps of displaced granite blocks, and the switch-over rails seem always to be with us. It creates a bad impression on the visitor from the south. 

Noisy The country folk who come on shopping and business expeditions must often be glad to get away from the noise to the quietude of their own town and village streets. And the people of Aberdeen must long for the day when the last pneumatic drill disappears from their main thoroughfare and comparative peace is restored. Long before the war the tramlines were being removed from many of the streets in London and other cities. They Saw There the civic governors had seen that the replacement of the cumbersome noisy tramcar by the quick and silent trolley bus was going to alleviate traffic congestion and speed up public transport. Is it not fantastic that Aberdeen should set itself up in this matter to be superior to London? The electric trolley has come to stay in these cities. The trams, except on some suitable, selected routes, have gone to the scrapheap. Few have mourned their passing. Whose is the hidden hand against this reform?

Source: Evening Express Tuesday October 16th, 1945