Bus Fare Rise Not Discussed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 22

Bus Fare Rise Not Discussed

There had been no discussion bj T the present board on raising fares, the chairman (Mr J. R. Smith) said at the Christchurch Transport Board’s meeting yesterady.

Discussion on the board’s deficit and a comment by Mr W. R. Campbell that it was unfortunate that an impression had got abroad that the new board was considering increasing the fares led to Mr Smith’s remark. The finance committee had! reported that the working loss for the four weeks to November 10 had been 510.014, an increase of S6BlO, and the de-

; ficiency for the year so far ■ was 5235.103, an increase of i §47,396. The weather had been worse i than usual, the general man- • ager (Mr J. F. Fardell) said, and this had a bearing on the figures, but the public passenIger industry was a shrinking one, the shrinkage being almost at the same rate as the increase in motor-vehicle ownership. The board did more mileage than Wellington, but carried approximately the same number of people as Dunedin. He agreed with Mr Smith that the suburban shopping centres and supermarkets contributed heavily to the drop in the off-peak hours traffic. Last year the board carried approximately 17 million passengers, he said, and one had Ito go back to 1916 to find a i similar number, but the mileage run was now about 4.5 m compared with 2.3 m in 1916. Fare increase were not the answer. Mr Fardell said. Every I time there had been an in- | crease there was a fall-off—-the last time it was 7.5 per cent—and it was permanent There must come a time when there would have to be an increase in fares, and he thought it would be a nine-1 day wonder, Mr D. A. R. McBeth said. Mr Smith: That has not been our experience.