TRAMWAY AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13227, 22 September 1908, Page 6

TRAMWAY AFFAIRS.

The revenue account of the Tramway Board.for the four weeks ending on the 13th inst. is not particularly cheerful reading, especaa_ly when compared with the account for the same period last year. Briefly, it shows a net loss of £1205, as against £795 for the same four weeEs in 1907. The detailed return of traffic shows that 20,000 more passengers were carried, and that the not receipts from this source were better by some £70, a falling off of 131,000 in the passengers who paid cash fares, h-ring to be put against the 146,000 passengers using concession cards, who did not figure in last year's reburnu The winter is admittedly the worst time for tramway traffic in Christohiurch, especially a fine open seasoui such as we have experienced during tho last two years, because it admits of the constant use of the bicycles which are the Tramway Board's worst enemies. Loss from this cause in the winter may, however, ordinarily be counterbalanced by the extra traffic to tho sea-fide and the hills in the summer months. But the most unfortunate feature of this balanceHsheet is not the very .small increase in passenger traffio that has taken place, though that is far from satisfactory, but the large increase in expenditure, and that mainly in a quarter from which no improvement can in the ordinary course of things .bo expected. The power expenses for the four-week period' are less tliis year by some £80, and the traffic expenses by £144, while the increase in tho general expenses is only £25. But the cost of repairs and roaintenianco is more than £500 heavier than during the same period last year, and even when allowance.as made for some possibly non-recurrent expenses, the deficit still stands at over £400. There is a saving on the item "permanent wa;y" of £120, but there are increases as regards electric cars amounting to £274, trailers £120, and locomotives £100. As time passes tho permanent way and rolling-stock will almost inevitably demand greater expenditure, and unless the revenue improves the Board will find itself going to the bad even faster than at present. It is obvious that tho time has eomo when tho Board must resolutely oppose any further attempts on the part of sections of the public to squeeze concessions out of them. Tho alteration in the LinwoodWoolston time-table, wo admit, cannot be regarded in this light. As tlie sub-committee rightly point out, thero is no such community of interest between the two localities as to warrant the present through tram service, and its effect has been to prevent tho Linwood portion of the service being so arranged as to cater adequately for tho large population affected. The cutting of the service into two parts, with the Woolston cars running to the Square and the Linwood cars to the Clock Tower, will allow of nine extra trips being run to Linwood, which should, to some extent, remedy the grievance of which just complaint has been made in the past. If the Board will now devote a page in the time-table to tho Stan-

more road service, possibly tho busiest of the -whole system, and thus relieve intending passengers from tho task of hunting through the time-tables of three separate services as present, they will confer a boon the extent of which will be out of all proportion to the cost. The half-hourly services to Sumner and New Brighton in the afternoons may also be regarded less as concessions to importunate residents than as acts of common-sense and wise policy. But with the new timetable and the present fares in force, we think the Board should stand finn against any further attacks on the revemie,. If we had a huge population, to whom halfpence were a consideration, reduction in fares would be followed by corresponding increases in traffic, just as tho loss originally caused by the reduction of the postage rate to a penny was mado up very soon by the enormous increase in the number of letters that wero posted. But here, in a district that is peculiarly adapted to easy cycling, we have a comparatively small population, whose circumstances are sufficiently prosperous to enable thorn to pay the present fares without inconvenience. An elected body is always presumed to be subject to pressure from its constituents, but ■tram passengers must remember that the Tramway Board represents tho wholo body of ratepayers, who look to tho Board to so manage tho city's tramways as to ensure them being at least self-supporting.