TRAMWAY FARES:

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 13937, 10 January 1911, Page 8

TRAMWAY FARES:

_ -4l A QUESTION OF CONCESSIONS. RICCARTON PASSENGER'S GRIEV- '/ . v ■■ ANCE. ~. The subject of tramway fares wa3 debated at the meeting of the Christchurch Tramway Board yesterday. It was brought up by Mr S. A. Staples, who moved that the Fares Committee should consider several complaints recently received in regard to the bimonthly concession cards issued, and other matters. He specially mentioned the case of a Mr Cross, who had been required to pay an extra fare on the Riccarton line because the car went round the Riccarton-Sockburn loop. Mr Staples considered that no extra fare should be required from passengers taken round the loop, seeing that the Board contracted to carry passengers to their destination at a fixed fare. It should : also be provided that a bimonthly ticket-holder could give his wife or family the use of his ticket. At present, many of the ticket-holders could not use all the rides allowed them. Mj. Flesher said it was a question whetuer the Board was prepared to review the conditions under which the concessions were given. He considered that the system had worked splendidly. The Board could not make provision for exceptional cases such as that mentioned by Mr Staples. The time had not arrived for an alteration of the terms of concessions. The fares fixed were very liberal ones. The discount waa practically 50 per cent., and there was no system south of the Line which gave such a large concession. The Board could not give any further concessions to the public, if it was to consider its finances. Mr Gray said that the raising of tho question would cause a feeling of unrest, and discontented people would rise up and demand a further reduction of fares which had been regarded as generally satisfactory. A return had recently been presented, showing that the Board lost on its concession tickets an average of .292 of a penny: on the Od tickets it would probably be over a halfpenny. The fares were more liberal in Christchurch tlian anywhere elso in New Zealand, and he was opposed to interfering with tho present arrangement. Mr Staples said that there was only an hourly service on the part of tho Riccarton line in question, and it was unjust to ask a man to pay an extra penny when it was for the Board's convenience that the trams ran round the loop. The Board should also carer for the railway traffic from Sockburn. He was not asking for anything outrageous, and had no desire to raise any bogies. He only wanted the concession oh the particular loop on the Riccarton line. After some further discussion, Mr Staples altered his motion, limiting the committee's deliberations to the bimonthly cards on the Riccarton line, and it was then passed.