Help for the buses

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33626, 30 August 1974, Page 8

Help for the buses

The best news for ratepayers in Christchurch m recent months must be the assurance from the Minister of Transport (Sir Basil Arthur) that he will soon be making proposals to the Cabinet on assistance for bus operators. The arguments in favour of Government assistance to public passenger tranport, especially in the cities, are so compelling that the reluctance of the present Government, and of its predecessor, to act on carefully considered recommendations is one of the strangest features of State policy on transport. Dollar for dollar, a subsidy on passenger transport — measured against any expenditure on reading to cater for more private cars — must be money well spent: the decision on how best to allocate State funds should not be difficult. Even if the expenditure is made at some cost to private motorists, the Government can honestly claim that the support of bus services is of direct advantage to other users of the roads. To its credit, the Christchurch Transport Board has shown that the maintenance of services at a reasonable cost to passengers can bring its own reward. If the present level of fares can be held, when almost all other transport are rising, both the use and revenue of the board’s buses should continue to improve. Such an improvement must be judged as all the more encouraging when, in most parts of the world, support for public transport is declining. If a discouraging trend has at last been reversed, no opportunity to reinforce the growth of public transport should be lost.