SAVING PENNY FARES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 167, 11 April 1932, Page 2

SAVING PENNY FARES

London People Walking LOSS ON THE TRAMWAY Instead of the expected surplus of ' £60.000 ou. the I ram ways for the current year,, the London County Council has been warned by its experts to expect a deficiency of £BB.OOO. The weekly returns of passenger traffic have shown a consistent decline. It looked as though the year's aggregate will be fewer than that of 1931 by some 13.000.000. As two years ago the tramways were considered to have turned the corner and lo he in for a period of prosperity the returns are the more discouraging. They are ascribed partly to trade depression and partly to the wet summer last year, when week-end traffic slumped. Since .1922-23 there has been a deficit every year except two. Air. B. Gttler, chairman of the highways committee, staled : "The drop in receipts is in all sections, but the heaviest: falling off is in penny fares. That, means that large numbers of short-distance passengers are now economising and walking.”