TRAMWAY FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 6

TRAMWAY FINANCE.

HOW GLASGOW MANAGES,

(To the Editor.)

Our tramway finance and management has been receiving a considerable amount of criticism of late, and it has struck me that certain figures which I obtained in Glasgow last year from the tramway department there might interest your readers. Here is where every £1 spent goes, and I trust users of trams will take notice of the 8d income tax: Traffic 6/11, depreciation 3/9, repairs 3/1, general expenses 3/9, debt charges 1/8, power ljd, income tax Bd, profit fd. Revenue per week £52,831, expenses-rates £179,144, income tax £77,581, paving of streets £200,122, equal to a contribution of 9/ per head of the population to local and imperial services. The maximum fare is 2d, and one can travel somewhere about 24 miles for that. I never at any time, either in Glasgow or elsewhere, had my ticket on bus or tram era-mined by anyone; but when I got back to the Queen City I had it examined six times in seven rides, none of which was longer than two sections. When one considers that the conductor has the right (if he wishes to exercise it) to precede the inspector in going through the car, the whole operation seems a waste of efficiency and a farce to boot. .Tramways are being torn up in many places, the bus having killed them. At other places, such as along the banks of the Tay, towards its mouth, the tracks have been left, but buses do the job. Indeed, it is a serious business if it is a company, and it is told_ to lift the rails. Tramways seem to be in a state of transition, and it behoves lis to walk warily, and while wc have a fine service, especially in the cars, we have also a very expensive one, and it is more than time that we started to reined}' this. NO TRAM RATE.