Poor patronage blamed for lack of port taxis

Press, 20 August 1986, Page 4

Poor patronage blamed for lack of port taxis

Poor patronage and bureaucratic obstacles have been blamed by the manager of Kiwi Taxis, Mr Kevin Murphy, for the lack of taxis serving Lyttelton. The only driver in Lyttelton had to wait for up to two hours for passengers on some days, and the service had lost its parent company, Blue Star Taxis, $30,000 since 1979, he said. The Lyttelton Borough Council heard on Monday evening that residents spent up to iy 2 hours waiting for taxis. Mr Murphy said the

service could be improved if Blue Star and Gold Band drivers were allowed to pick up passengers from Lyttelton taxi stands. At present, only the Kiwi taxi can run from taxi stands or be hailed. Other drivers must be called from Christchurch to pick up passengers in Lyttelton, because of boundaries set by the Ministry of Transport An application to change the boundaries to allow all taxis intq.i.yttelton in 1984 would have cost Christchurch drivers $33 each, and had been

withdrawn. If the boundary could be changed, Lyttelton would get a better service, said Mr Murphy. An Inquiry into the existing service by the Transport Licensing Authority will be held on September 11. Public submissions will be heard. An investigating officer for the Ministry, Mr Brian Hawkins, said the inquiry was aimed at finding the cause of the problem and ways of solving it Amalgamation might not be found to be the best solution, but this would be examined,