REPLACING TRAMCARS BY TROLLEY-BUSES.
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An Enterprising Lancashire Municipal Authority, Realizing the Antiquity of the Tramcar, Seeks to Obtain Powers to Run Railless Vehicles.
ACCORDINGto the Parliamentary Committee of the Lancashire County Council, the St. Helens Corporation has applied to the Minister of Transport for a provisional order to run trolley vehicles along two routes on which atpresent a system of tramways is worked. One route runs along roads in the counfy borough, and then along a non-classified secondary road to the Liverpool and Manchester main road in Rainhill. Another route runs from this point along the main road into the Prescot urban district to the junction with the St. Helens main road.
The committee recommends that objection be lodged to this provisional order, unless satisfactory clauses are inserted therein with regard to the abandonment of the tramways, the removal of the tram track, and the consequent reconstruction of the carriageway. As it will be necessary for the rural district council
to obtain similar clauses in respect of the secondary road, the committee -proposes i
to consult with t and to give such assistance as it can to secure protection.
The committee also reports that the Ashton-under-Lyne Corporation is asking Parliament toauthorize it to maintain trolley vehicles along any authorized tramway route in the borough, and along the Oldham main road in the townships of Waterloo and Bardsley horn the borough boundary to the Oldham boundary. Power is also to he sought to .fun trolley vehicles along any other route which the Minister of Transport may authorize by provisional order, the consent of the local or road authority, however, being necessary to the making of any such order. The Corporation is also to be authorized to run omnibuses within and without the borough. The usual omnibus model clauses are inserted in the Bill.
With regard, however, to the running of trolley vehicles along the Oldham main road, the committee points out that it will be remembered that the Corporation has been in negotiation with the Main Roads and Bridges Committee in regard to the proposed abandonment of the tramway on this road. The cornmittee reported the matter to the last meeting of the Comity Council, when the following resolution waa passed :—
" That no opposition be raised te. the Bill which is about to be promoted by the Corporationof A shtonunder-Lyne for enabling it to substitute a system of truckles trolley vehicles for the tramway powers obtained under its Act of 1917, provided that , clauses satisfactory to the County Council are inserted in the proposed Bill."
The Bill as drawn does not, however, contain any provisions which can be said to be satisfactory, and though it is not anticipated that any difficulty will arise in negotiating further with the Corporation for the necessary amendments to the Bill, the committee feels it desirable to recommend that a petition be presented against the Bill to protect the interests of the county ratepayers.