CITY TRAMWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1139, 29 May 1911, Page 5

CITY TRAMWAYS.

I SPECIAL REPORT. SPLENDID RESULTS OF SIX AND A-HALF YEARS' WORKING. 1 NO FURTHER CONCESSIONS. The comprehensive report upon tho city tramways railed for recently by (he City Council from its tramway engineer (llr. S. Richardson) has now been propared, and was circulated amongst conncillor.<i on Saturtl-iy. The report ie a, ' document, and can be presented h«rc only in summary. I }h. Richardson slates that tho finan-. cial position of tho tramways is exceptionally strong. The main points of hU report may be set out as under:— Although the business lias been in operalion for only six and a half yoars,. tho corporation has assets over liabilities amounting to £129,265. Tho financial results compare, very fav-. ourably with those of similar undertakings in tho Dominion. An earmarked fund, to bo drawn upon for renewals only, should bo started next, financial year, by setting aside annually £5000 out of the appropriation, for depreciation. No further concessions should be flranted. !t is essential to consorve the earnina power of the tramways, No extensions of tho system should be un-, ■ dertaken unless they are reasonably payable. Car accommodation at Kilbirnio will be, necessary in the very noar future and: additional rolling stock must bo provided for next yoar. If revenue is insufficient to meet this heavy capital outlay, tho council must consider theadvisability of raising a loan to carry i out these works, Equal to 9, 1 Per Cent. Rpoakiiiß of finance, the engineer states tliat last years gross surplus of J:46,523 is equivalent to a return of Ui per cent. ??■», S;l p . ital , cost of lho h-nmwoys (.{.'SOS.. ~>M). lip, ho continues, is an exceedinßly high return, one that would enable a private company to pay a dividend of ' -per cent on its share capital, ami* carry to reserve a sum of nearly .Cll.SOO' lor depreciation and renewals. A corporation, on tho other hand, has to par interest on loans and provide a. sinking fund, out of its profits. Til us the citvtramways produced last year a gross snrplus of ,£49,323, but nWestf siiikinc lnnd, and depreciation broueht this down to a net surplus of £0220. hf-ress is laid on the fact that a considerable proportion of tho expenditure under tho heading of general repairs and maintenance is for renewals, mid' could rightly be charged neninst depre' notion. It has, however, been a prac-i tice, since the inauguration of the per- ' vice, to charge renewals to revenue ana ', not against depreciation, as is done in'i other tramway undertakings. In manvi instances, also, additions and improvements have been paid for out of revenue i that could have boon charged to capital' An Expanding Revenue. . ! Tho tramways contributed .£I7OO in the shape of rents and rates to the Citv; District Fund last year. Tho total com- • cessions last year, under the concession' ticket system, amounted to .TIGOO, t din- i ia!"l Om " 2 ° per ocnt, on lhe ordinary A table appended to the report shows' 1 K of operation (190S-(i) to; «CH2,783 Inst year, working expenses have increased 'coir-, citlentlγ from JC53.8G8 to .495,905, cauh> year showing much the same percental of. working expenses to revenue. In the' comparison of gross surplus to loans raised, however, the results have improved each year. The percentages have 1-iMii from 0.20 per cent, in 1905-0 to fl.'Vrper cent, in l'Jlo-11. U'lic revenue per car ■ mile of single track has improved each' year, and now returns ph average annual* field of £-m for each single inilonf track over the city system. Traffic re-' yemin per ear mils has increased from i 12.52 d. in 1905-0 to U.35d. last year. Pas- ; senders .per car mile have increased from ■ U. 23 in 1905-6 to 10.6? in 1010-11. Other Centres Compared. Attached to tho report :s a, comparative schedulo showin.? tho financial results of . tramways in tho four centres of tho Do-' minion. Following are the main itcmeI s * .** I*2 pa I fcfcrtS o>£S pfea <;So3 • Bcvcnuc ... £121,0« £105,0E<t £65,793 £162,594 ' uorliing exnPC ° sc . s - £S9 - 294 £59,«4 £36,401 £124,532 l" • £,1 ' 7M f «.£5S £23,598 £58,002 .... £463,423 £«7,C00 £300,CC0 £729,002 of "itrors surjilus to Loans TraracV'" 9i,,C, iUi P,C, " 9 P,C, W5 PjS > venue per ear mile K.3ld. C-:.30d. Working expellees per car . mils 9.72 d. S.OOd. 7.91 d. - Averago . fare per > wES " M - '• 95d ' i ' 39d ' "M----expentoo 0,91 d' lm - MU ' MM- . length of penny eoclio" MJchne. eichns. 62chns. 87chne. ,'!!'!° en ß. inM r. Points out that result* jary Rli-a ly in each ceutw, owing to tho very different local conditions Tho comparisons are giren, more with tho now of Ruordinj; the council inormntien t.-ian for elucidating tho posi(ion in \\ ollington. The lowest avera-o. fare pev jiasswiger - in Welling, toil, and lhe nvenage charge per car mile is considerably lower in Wellingtonthan ni tho other ccnlros. "Taking into consideration tlw fact that tho hifjhes.t rates of wnces in the Dominion rule in Wellington," remarks the engineer, "and that the service necessarily be costly lo run by reason of tho hilly nnriirc of the city, I consider" that the financial results of the Welling. • ton system compare favourably with thobf of the other centres," Assets and Liabilities., Tramway assets, including sinking fund, are shown nt .£070,075, and liabillics, exl eluding depreciation charges, amount to jfoii.'pO, leaving a balance of assets over liabilities of .£129,265. The total amount of depreciation charcoe to date is JJ72.105. Practically the wholo nf this has been expended on now works, "lhe practice of appropriating the wholo af the depreciation fnnd for extensions lo tho system cannot be indefinitely conLimicd," tho engineer remarks, "as it will be necessary for considerable renewals to be iiuhlc to the track mill plant when the effective economic life of these parts is «ndcd. Unless a liquid fund is available when these assets have to be replaced, the current year's revenue may. :hcn bo insufficient to meet such a special. nitlny." .To meet this contingency, Mr. Hichar-dson recommends the inauguration )f a special fund, not later (hah next ,-ear; ,£50(10 should bo set aside out of ■ach year's appropriation for depreciation, L'ho fund should bo built up to, say, 030,000 and maintained at this strength'. Steady Reduction of Debt. One ptr cent, of. tramway loans raised ias been stt aside annually as sinking mid. Theso amounts with interest now otal JE29.373. "With the exception of a loan of C'l9,G2s,.which matures in 1914," the enincer eontinnej, "all the loans mature ,i>(;wcen 192!) mid 1932. Calculating tho inking; fund (it 1J per cent, compound nlerest, the.-tolj) amount of the sinking und by the limo the last lpan innliiprs will « nearly half the present loan liability of 1505,523. This meatus that in 21 years' ime, when all'the present loans are reinverted, tho loan indebtedness of tho

city will ho only a little over ,£250,000, and the capital charges will bo one-half what they are at present, an annual saving of £13,000. "If tho present system of extending and renewing tho system out of revenue is maintained, the city will, in 21 years' time (apart from any loan raised in future), huve a most valuable undertaking with a capital eutlay of over .£1,000,000, and a loan indebtedness, of only, about .2250,000. "This," states ,tho engineer, "is not an optimistic ■ view, considering that in the hr.st G.V years' operations of the undertaking, X'JO.OOO has been added to tho assets, out of revenue, in addition to providing a sinkiug fund and the writing-oft of preliminary expenses." Concluding his remarks under this tead, Mr.' ltichardson says that financial success can only be. assured if the civic authorities refrain from giving further concessions and generally conserve tho earning power of the tramways. The financial position should also bo safeynarded by great care being taken with regard to future extensions so that tho system will not bo loaded with non-pay-'ablo lines. Ten Minutes' Service. Traffic management was tho subject of Bomo warm comment at tho meeting ot Ithe council when it eventually decided ito call for the. report hero summarised. ■Dealing with this subject the engineer remarks, inter alia: "Practically from tho (inception of the undertaking the policy iof tho council has been tho provision of la regular and frequent , .service on all routes throughout tho day for tho convenience of the public, nnd a ten jninutes , service was adopted as a standard on all lines. This service has returned a small revenue at light hours ot traffic in comparison with tho cost ot jrunning on some of the routes, as was ghbwn by the sectional traffic returns furaiishcd monthly to the council. . . . jl have always been aware that the traffic ton certain sections has not warranted a Sten minutes' service being run at light ihours. This matter was gone into thor'oughly by me as far back as 1906. In October of that year I- reported- to the /.Tramways Committee that the services should lie cut down on Aro Street, Thorndon Quay, Oriental Bay, Island Bay, Wallace Street, and Brooklyn, during : certain hours of. the, day. With some ei■ceptions my report was adopted by the 'council and tho reduced service was ibrought into operation on ' November '5 ' of that year, and continued in force until February 3, 190 i, when tho council decided to revert to ithe regular ten minutes' service on all ilines, it being apparently considered that J tho reduced services did not fully meet Uhe requirements.of the public." i After detailing the steps that led to 1 the introduction of the timetable, Mr. Richardson mentions that in 1909 a scheme, from an unofficial source, .'was submitted to- the Tramways Com'mitfcse for Tunning a regular twelve ! minutes'! service in place of .tho_ ten 'minutes'.service, in vogue. It was claimed ; that .£10,(100 per annum would be saved. Examination showed that tho scheme was defective, and. that the possible saving had been quito over-estimated. - It was thereupon dropped. . • Rush Hour Problems. Provision of car accommodation at : TUsh hours, the engineer remarks, is the most difficult problem the Department has to face. As showing what has been done to meet tho Tush-hour demand, ho peints but that whereas 42 ' care- are required for regular service, between 70 and 80 cars are run at busy times. He foresaw last ,year that more rolling-stock would be required, and recommended the conversion- of a .number of box-cars into combination type cars. Loss of underwear in the steameT Parisiana interrupted the building programme, but the order for the trucks lost was duplicated, and a start was made with the construction of two small- cars, suitable for hilly lines. The latter, will 'be available a month hence; Trucks to replace . those lost in tho Parisiana are <lue in two months, and additional equipments for six new cars have' been ordered,, and should be delivered shortly. Arrangements are in hand for.the'construction of eight now cars .and the conversion of six box-cars. When the ' building programme is completed.B9 cars will : be available. Narrow , ' gauge and sharp curves on the local system intensify the difficulty of dealing with Tush hours and overcrowding in Wellington, as compared with other Dominion'centres. In Wellington cars must be not more than 36 feet long and 6ft. 6in. wide. The latest ears in Auckland are 43 feet long and 7ft. 6in. wide, and have a,much greater seating capacity than the Wellington vehicles. Among3t other factors "which increase the difficulty of handling rush-hour traffic,., the ensinw names the small length of double track in the local system. Heavy traffic, at rush hour 9on single lines, causes considerable delay. Conditions of Work, Mr. Richardson deals in some detail with the general conditions under'which the Jramway men are employed in Wellington. It is undoubtedly a fact, he states, that the terms given are more liberal than in any of the/other centres, and the rates of pay givon'are generally the highest in tho Dominion. Mr. Richardson estimates that, if the conditions we're applied to the local system that exist in Christchurch, the corporation would save over ■Smo per year. If the conditions "that obtam in Auckland wore adopted (apart f F°,™ t" e saving effected by. , their spare list) the local operating costs'would tra reduced by over .£3OOO annually. ' A Revised Time-table. • Mr. Richardson submits a revised timetable which he staites would- reduce car services on' the same lines during hours of traffic, provide,-more-frequent services-on , some lines during.rush Hours, and show a fair saving atmually.' The alterations from the present time-tablo are briefly .as follow-.— - : .... '-iA Rsute.—lsland Bay: Cars to run: to Thorndon Quay instead of Lambton Station, as at present; with a 15-min-nteS, service in the forenoon and evening, and ten-minutes' service at other times. B Eoute.—Newtown; Botanical Gardens, and Karori: Present regular service, with a five-minutes' service- between Lambton Quay and Botanical Gardens from 4.45 p.m. to G. 30 p.m. Special cars at rush hours. C Eoute.-Constable Street and Lambton Quay, via Jervois Quay: Fifteen-min-service at light hours, with a Vi-'minutes' service from noon to 2 • :p.m., and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. JD Bouto.—Oriental Bay and Lambton Station: Cats to run to Lambton Station only every ten minutes, except between 9 a.m. and 11.30 a.m., and from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., when a 15minutes' service will be maintained. J! Route.—Wallace Street and Lambton Station, via Jervois Quay: A 71-min- ■ utes'_ service at rush hours, with a 15-minutes' service forenoon and afternoon. Evening service of 12 minutes, as at present. IT Route.—Ato Street and Lambton Station: A 15-minutos' service throughout the day, with a 10-minutes' service from 4.45 p.m. to 8 p.m. Specials at ■noon and 1 p.m. G Route.—Brooklyn: Cars to run .tenminutes' service from Manners Street all day, observing samo time-table as at present. 5 Route.—Kilbirnie, Mirainar, Seatoun, and Lyall Bay: Samo as at present.