NEW SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 236, 5 October 1937, Page 11

NEW SERVICE.

MANGERE TRANSPORT.

CHANGE IN DECEMBER.

AN INCREASE IN FARES. Complete agreement was reached at a sitting of the No. 1 Transport Licensing Authority to-day for the future running of the passenger services through the Mangere district.

After hearing representatives of the various transport interests concerned and also of the local governing authority and the public, the chairman, Al\ E J Phelan, granted permission to the Passenger Transport Company to caucei >ti license and authorised the issuing oi a license to Suburban Buses, Ltd.. to operate from the beginning of December. It was agreed that the present service should be continued until arraiigci-ionts were made for the change.

The proposals of Suburban Buses, Ltd., provided for a through service to the city, co-ordinated with the company's Te Papapa service and with some increases in fares.

A rival application for the transfer of the license held by the Passenger Transport Company to two bus drivers, T. H. Hadfiekl and R. Rostance, to operate a feeder service to connect with the trams at Onehunga, was withdrawn. It was stated that during the past two months, while uncertainty ae to the future of the service had caused concern to the residents, there had been no curtailment.

"A through service parallel with the trains is not a paying proposition," said Mr. Phelan during the hearing of the case. He added that increased frequency would not, in the view of the public, compensate for the inconvenience of having to change from oue form of transport to another.

Petition Produced. Support for the proposal to co-ordinate with the Te Papapa run was expressed by Mr. S. W. House, Mangere riding member of the Maimkau County Council, who produced a petition signed by over 600 residents. "Wβ could treble the number of signatures," he said.

A resident wiio represented the portion of the district in the vicinity of Mangere bridge said the people of that locality would prefer a feeder service to a through service which involved higher fares, but he did not press his opposition. At the conclusion of the hearing general appreciation was expreseed of the action of the Passenger Transport Company in maintaining the service until a new arrangement could be made.

It wae indicated by the chairman that the fares would be reviewed during the first year of operation of the new service, and an assurance was given to the authority that if the revenue increased sufficiently the operators would consider a return, to the present scale of farce.