The results with the 'G-B.' system at Lincoln prove that it is possible to construct surface-contact tramways at a cost about 10 per cent. more than that of trolley tramways, and to operate them, safely and with reliability, at a cost not appreciably more than the general working expenses of an overhead line. But this proof has not only been enfeebled for the special reasons just described, but it came at a time when the public had got quite accustomed to the trolley and also when most towns had already been equipped with electric traction. Ten or fifteen years earlier, such a proof might have changed the course of tramway development; now it can have no great material effect. The upshot of the contest between the three systems has, therefore, been the survival of the one which was most despised at the outset. CHAPTER VII THE BACKWARDNESS OF ELECTRIC TRACTION IN GREAT BRITAIN Popular objections to the overhead system are not, of course, quite dead. Every tramway proposal in districts where the trolley has not already penetrated is still opposed on the ground of disfigurement and danger. This opposition serves as an index to the severity of the struggle which the advocates of the trolley system had to encounter before they made it almost universal in large cities. But the dislike of the public for a questionable novelty was not the sole reason why electric tramway enterprise was backward in Great Britain. It is not strictly accurate to say that electric tramway _enterprise_ was backward. The enterprise was there, in spirit, but circumstances were very much against it. Tramway schemes are controlled by special legislation which was passed before electric traction was contemplated; and this legislation has not been amended in any material degree to suit the altered conditions brought about by the use of electricity.