THE NEW TRAM FARES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 142, 15 June 1920, Page 2

THE NEW TRAM FARES.

AND PROPOSED CONCESSIONS. P.KFL'XDS FOR UNTIED TRIPS. A good deal of doubt clouds the public mind an to the actual proposal* of the City Council on the subject of tra.ni fare ' conceeaions itndpr the new scale of charges, and the lengthy di.-- 1cushions by tho different interestedlocal authorities have but added to the confusion. In the first place the ordinary fares agreed upun at t!lO conference between the City Council and other local bodies, and to come into force at the beginning of next month, or a* soon after a.s the legal preliminaries permit, will l»n at the rate of one penny per section in cm-c-h of the present fares*. That is to say a one-section ride will cost -(\, two sections ,'Jd, and so on up Ito Td for >ix sections. All in termed ij ate eprtioim will be abolished except the ; one botween the Captain Cook Hotel and tin; oM Junction Hotel Corner, wiu'le the Hoy;il Oak and Onehunga return far*-; will go up to 10.1 and Jld respectively. Sunday travellers will have to pay .'in additional penny on week-day fares- .td being the minimum fare for Sunday, and po on up to a sixsection rido. which will lie Bd. Xo concession whatever will be allowed on Sunday fnres. The Conference ateo agreed on the ■basic principle of a i'l per cent, concession on the ordinary fares for regular.jor residrnt t raveilor*. but the details were Ipft to the tramway management to arrange, subject to approval. Bes'trictione which the Council proposes to place on use of these concessions have since raised the oppo.-ition of the local hodipj. I , i> proposed that concession trips shall be iesi-.ed in cards of twelve trips, different coloured cards to be i*pued fur groups of section?. There will be one, two. three, four, five, and six consecutive j section concession carde, the .price of which will He I/O. 2/3. »/. 3/9. 4/0, and 5/6 respectively. As all special concession tickets are to be abolished these card trips can be used for any eection on. the system, or group of soctions. as 'the case may be. A person who resides at «j'rey Lynn, and takes out a. two or three section concession card for travel-1 ling to and from town, can use the came card if business or pleasure takes him, f-ay, to Newmarket or Romuera, to Kingsland or Mt. Albert. A concession card of twelve tripe for any particular j number of consecutive sections can be used anywhere over the eyetem, on which the fares will be uniform per section. These concession cards arc transferable in the sense that they can be passed from one person to another, but they i are non-trausferable in so far as "ehoutI ing-" is concerned. They can only be I used for the payment of one person's fare at a time. The City Council contends that the concessions are only meant for regular travellers on the trams, and that the corporation is entitled to collect the full ordinary fare from the casual customer. It is also proposed to limit the currency of concession cards to one month each, from the. date of issue, tho main argument in support of this course being a book-keeping one on the part of the j management. There is no intention by the, City Council in imposing this time limit to penalise regular travellers who [ may have odd fares left oh their hands i at the expiry of the four weeks, and refunds will be given on any unused cards or portions of cards to the value of the unused portions.