FINANCE OF BUS TRANSPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 156, 5 July 1927, Page 6

FINANCE OF BUS TRANSPORT.

FACTS IN SUPPORT. / (To the Editor.) A lialf-truth can he more misleading than a direct mis-statement. "E.A.W.,"' writing in your issue of July 1, points out that privately owned btises have been withdrawn from service and that proprietors have lost money in the business in Sydney and Melbourne. He has not said a word about the strangulation legislation that has killed them. He speaks about money being lost by the San Francisco municipality on their buses; as a matter of fact they only use them as feeders to the trams.' It is well known by operators that this never does pay directly; it pays indirectly in that it gives the trams more revenue, thus causing them to show higher profits. In Philadelphia trams, petrol electric buses and motor buset are all run by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, which has a monopoly of the transit of the city. No doubt the management could make profits or losses on trams or busei by running one or the other on the profit*bU routes. ITie Birmingham Corporation showed a profit on buses as well as trams, and are sc satisfied with the results obtained from busei that they are adding another fifty buses t« the two hundred at present in use as 6ooa as they can be supplied. "E.A.W." points out that benzine in America being so much lest than in New Zealand, the operation costs of buses shonld be very much less there. Ho* then, can it be accounted for that it costs th« Seattle Municipal Tramways 2/6 a bus mile t« operate buses, while in Edinburgh and Xen Zealand it costs about 1/2? It is significanl that in Seattle the municipal authorities hav» statutory powers to regulate their own traffic Finally, "E.A.W." recognises that transportation should be ruled by the law of economics the same as other forms of business. That this is not so is patent to all thinking people by the fact of protective legislation being sought and obtained. Without going further afield, it can be shown in Auckland that wher« business ha# not been interfered with by tlie operation of the penal fare, buses can* give a more economical ride and still show a profit to satisfy any investor who is content with a moderate ten to fifteen per cent interest on capital invested. G. B. BEAVER.