Re: BRISBANE LIGHT RAIL / TRAMS

David McLoughlin (davemcl@-DROP-iprolink.co.nz)
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 09:36:20 +1200

garry wrote:

>
> As an aside, the road is owned by Main Roads and the tracks were
> should I say deliberately unofficially left uncovered because they
> start right outside the entrance to Clem Jone's laneway to his house
> ;-) Surely that wasn't done to remind him of his folly.

Oh, I hope it was. How very fitting. He should be sent the bill for
reinstating the trams.

> It was also very interesting to hear him say trams are a good idea all
> modern cities need them. Shades of his statement in 1968 when
> announcing their removal that trams and modern cities don't go
> together.

He's said far worse. He's admitted he got rid of the trams to force
people to use cars. I quote:

"We are trying to get rid of public transport. I"m not an anti-motorcar
man. I believe people are entitled to a home and a motorcar. What's the
good of having a society which provides for a man to own a car and tells
him he must leave it at home five days a week."

-- Clem Jones, former lord mayor of Brisbane and the greatest vandal in
that city's history, in `Walkabout' March 1971, quoted in `Watch for
Trams' (Colin Jones, Kangaroo Press, 1993) page 94.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand