Tramways, Motor-buses, etc. 469 



powers allow of a still further extension to the city boundary. 

 At Bradford the railless system establishes a link a little over 

 a mile in length between two tramway routes. 



In the Session of 1911 there were about sixteen Bills before 

 Parliament applying for powers in respect to railless traction. 

 Some of these were promoted by local authorities, one or two 

 were by tramway companies, one was by an omnibus company, 

 and the remainder were schemes by various private promoters. 



Municipal corporations already owning and operating tram- 

 ways would seem to favour the railless electric traction system 

 because it enables them (i) to utilise to greater advantage 

 the electric power they are already generating for tramway 

 purposes ; and (2) to provide transport facilities for parts of 

 their district where, as is said, the traffic prospects would not 

 warrant the laying of a tramway. It is open to consideration, 

 however, whether the recognition by municipalities of the 

 advantages of railless electric traction over the tramway does 

 not itself foreshadow the eventual doom of the latter, apart 

 altogether from any considerations that arise in respect to 

 the motor-omnibus. It is certainly significant that in his 

 presidential address to the ninth annual conference of the 

 Municipal Tramways Association, in September, 1910, the 

 general manager of the Bradford Corporation Tramways, 

 Mr C. J. Spencer, is reported to have said : 



" In considering future developments the trackless trolley 

 system naturally comes first into view. The introduction of 

 this new method of transit into this country . . . will un- 

 doubtedly extend the sphere of usefulness of the trolley system. 

 The tramway construction boom stopped, not because every 

 district that required better facilities was supplied, but 

 because financial reasons made it impossible to proceed any 

 further into districts unable to support a capital expenditure 

 of 14,000 to 15,000 per mile of tramway laid. . . . The 

 railless system, however, comes along with a vehicle as reliable 

 as a tramcar, and at least as cheap to operate, but with a 

 capital expenditure on street work so low that the bugbear of 

 heavy interest and sinking fund charges is practically non- 

 existent." 



It remains to be seen to what extent companies or corpora- 

 tions will be likely to start entirely new and independent 

 schemes of railless electric traction, setting up power-houses, 



