Trams.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19152, 8 November 1927, Page 8

Trams.

It must have occurred to very many of those who have been up and down Riccarton road during the last two days that the use of trams by the public is rapidly declining. On that particular road at this particular season the trams probably are losing support, but they are not doing so in general. It is revealed in the latest Monthly Abstract of Statistics that there were as many people carried in trams for the year ended March 31st, 1927, as for the preceding year, or almost as many, and very many more last year than the year before. And it is not merely a case of the greater number of people in the Dominion each year to be 1 carried. The population served by trams is certainly increasing: since 1911 it has increased 60 per cent., and for the increase of 3 per cent, registered last year there was not only no corresponding increase in the number of tram passengers carried, but a slight decrease. On the other hand the number of passengers carried year by year since 1911 has increased altogether by 102 per cent., while the number of trips registered per annum per head of population is still 27 per cent, higher than it was in 1911, and 7 per cent, higher than it was even in 1922. The figures indeed indicate —and it is a real surprise—that the tendency of the public to use trams is still as strong as ever. If we take 100 as representing this tendenoy in 1911, it was 121 in 1921, and since then has been 120, 119, 122, 118,129, and 127 for each of the years following. On these figures, and a comparison of the number of passengers carried with the number available for carriage, the Statistics Office concludes that the " demand for tram- " way transport actually waned " three times between 1921 and 1927. But it certainly did not wane last year or the year before, or very seriously for any year, so that it is still true in general that the population is as much given to tram-riding as ever it was. It is not true, however —and this is the really disturbing fact —that the financial statistics are as buoyant as the statistics of passengers and rides. If we take revenue and operating expenses only we get the following table of results for the last five years: Year efcdcd Operating March 31et. Revenue. expenses. £ £ 1923 .. 1,510,391 1,053,018 1924 .. 1,562,791 1,118,483 1925 .. 1,631,935 1,137,478 1926 .. 1,607,909 1,151,747 1927 .. 1,640,330 1,224,152 Although there is a drop in revenue between 1925 and 1926, there is a more than corresponding rise for 1927, and the general result seems satisfactory. Bui if ye examine it a w&e

closely we find that it reaHy amounts to this: Percentage of gross surplus to capital Ye**. (xroMi Surplus, outlay. £ Per cent. 1938 ... 457,373 .10.46 1934 .. 444,308 11.07 ' 1925 .. 484,457 10.30 1926 .. 456,222 9.58 1927 .. 416,178 8.21 In other words, the revenue has not kept pace with .operating expenditure, so that the general position to-day is a good deal less satisfactory than it was four or five years ago. And this is further proved by the next table, showing the relation between surplus and capital charges: Percentage of Gross Capital C.C. Tear surplus, charges, to G.S. £ £ Per cent. 1923 .. 457,373 320,143 69.99 1924 .. 444,308 325,357 73.23 1925 .. 484,457 380,128 78.46. 1926 .. 456,222 374,112 82.00 1927 .. 416,178 381,591 91.69 The Statistics Office suggests that this "rapid drift in tramway finance" is due, in the main, to the increasing competition of motor transport, as it perhaps is. But although that competition will continue, it is not yet so sharp (as the Office begins by proving) as nine out of ten people suppose, and not nearly sharp enough to make a financial "drift" inevitable. The trams still have monopolistic privileges, and even without them an enormous body of support from the public. It is difficult to believe that they cannot be made to pay, and to pay well, if operating expenses are reduced and there are no more unprofitable extensions of lines or stock.