In 1949 there was a petition going around town to help revive the Eastend incline, with no success. It was estimated that year 2,000 people used the Wentworth mountain stairs on a daily basis between the hours of 6 in the morning and 6 pm. Proponents of the incline argued that an elevator 'would take passengers and baby carriages to the top of Hamilton mountain and back' plus 'school children took the bus because they couldn't carry their bicycles up the steps'. The reason attributed for its closure in 1936 was the falling off in the numbers using it, due to the depression, and the depreciation of its rolling stock.