INCREASED CAR FARES

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 126, 28 May 1920, Page 6

INCREASED CAR FARES

In view of the increased wages charges (amounting to almost £40,000), tho City Councit*has been faced with the necessity of adding to tramway fares, or else working the department at a loss. The loss would' have fallen on ratepayers, ,and this is what Councillor Hutchison proposed. Fortunately the proposal was noo entertained' by the majority of the Council. In passing, we might point out that if services of this kind are to be recouped from the rates when there is a loss, ratepayers have an equaf claim? to profits when such are shown. Labour councillors, we believe, would oppose such a claim. Admitting the necessity for an increased charge to the users of the cars, we believe the Council has done well in accepting the recommendations of the General <J»lanager.. provided that the altered scale shall not be regarded as feed .and final.. In drawing up his pro posals the General Manager had to consider two classes of passengers: those who v/sre compelled to travel (the longdistance business passenger), and those who chose to travel while .the cost was not excessive (short-distance passenger.; and pleasure riders). A heavy burden thrown on the former would not havo involved an immediate decrease m the number of passengers, but it w/nriii h:ive had an ultimate effect much more disastrous. It «.vould have discomvt^sd suburban settlement and increased congestion in the heart of the city. Short-distance passengers, on the other, hand, would have forsaken the cars if asked to pay too much.

In considering this matter, the Corporation officers have, we presume, full data to guide them, and any suggestion by a layman that the short-distance ridor has been let clown too lightly and the suburban rider asked to pay too much, may be refuted by figures which cannot be denied. At the same time, >it cannot be overlooked that, while concession ticket-holders over more than ono section are charged Is more than the proxvar fare, the increase to one-section riders is only 6d if they purchase concession cards. This is one of the facts which leads us to hope that the present scale will not be regarded us fixed ani immovable if revenue returns over a period • indicate that there is a margin for revision, so that the burden or the suburban resident may be eased. Thcs "('commendation that there sLould be no distinction between holders of "workers' " and ordinary concession tickets is justified, especially as it is -urged thnt the earnings of "workers" (within the meaninp of the regulations) are ofti'.n greater than tho earnings of some people who cannot with convenience 'ivail-theinselves of the special concession. It is impossible in the present day to separate the people who work into Mvo elapses o:i such an arbitrary division as the limeclock provides. When the "workers' " concessions are abolished, however, the increase to previous holders will seem heavy, but this is largely accounted for by the fac,t that the. "workers" have hitherto escaped the first increase v.hich the general public had to'pay.