TRAMWAY CAR-MILES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20835, 20 April 1933, Page 7

TRAMWAY CAR-MILES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —In your leader following the publication of the tramway accounts for the year 1932-33 you referred to one of the weaknesses of the system. In 1927 I argued that compared with other cities in New Zealand we were wasting 1,314,780 car-miles a year. Mr J. Wood, then chairman of the board, took the matter up, and succeeded in getting the car-miles reduced by half a million. Compare the years 1920 and 1927: Passengers Car-miles carried. run. lOL'O .. •J5,'973.658 .1,144,000 i iO'- 1 " .. 20,G9U,0G2 .1,770,408 - Dec. 'JSO.OOO Im\ 031,408' Making allowance for the smaller number of passengers carried, we ran 675,408 car-miles more in 1927 than was needed, equalling an absolute loss of £50,000. Passengers Car-miles carried. run. 1014 .. 3 6,1 05.1 74 ' 2,1 1032 .. 10,306,351 •-•,718,378 Making allowance for 370,000 more passengers carried, we still are wasting over 500,000 car-miles compared with 1914, which was already over car-miled. showing a loss still of over £37,000. Over the seven-year period 1927-33 the decrease in passenger:; carried was 39.4 per cent.; the decrease in car-miles was 26.4 per cent., the difference of 13 per cent, representing wasted carmiles of over 490,0Q0, or about £37,000. This car-mile fetish has resulted in a waste of, say, £500,000. Why?— Yours, etc., TRANSPORT. April 18, 1933. .[Commenting on this letter yesterday the general manager of the Tramway Board, Mr F. Thompson, said that since 1927 the car-miles run had decreased by 24 per c<jnt. Revenue had decreased by 39 per cent, in the same period; but it would be a mistake to reduce the service to "the public further by reducing car-miles run. Such a policy might easily prove suicidal. The correspondent was much astray when he estimated the savings which would be made if carmiles were reduced. He was out in; his calculations by several thousands of. pounds.].