A FLAT RATE FOR TRAMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 221, 18 September 1929, Page 6

A FLAT RATE FOR TRAMS.

The Transport Board, recognising that the estimated'deficit for the year from the tram service is well over £20,000, is investigating its" financial prospects with pardonable anxiety; and the proposal to substitute a flat rate of threepence for. the present scale of car fares deserves serious consideration. It is natural that the outlying suburbs should regard this suggestion with favour, and there is considerable force in the opinion expressed by the One Tree Hill Road Board, that the flat rate is worth trying "in view of the present serious competition from private cars and cut-rate taxi fares." In any case, the question is purely a financial one. We believe that the; experiment has been made with good results in large cities elsewhere; and if, on full investigation by experts in transport finance, the Board secures evidence that appears 0 justify a confident expectation of success, the scheme might well be tried. Of course, it must be remembered that, as Mr.A- J. Entrican pointed out yesterday, "the bulk of the revenue comes from the first and second sections, and the city will have to find two-thirds of any losses incurred." It is mainly a question whether the probable increase in the number of passengers.will make up for the reduction in the higher fares, and this is a question which the average non-professional ratepayer gannot pretend to answer.