BUYING OUT BUSES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1926, Page 10

BUYING OUT BUSES

ELIMINATING COMPETITION

RAILWAY- DEPARTMENT

VENTURE.

The first step by the Railway Department in the direction of buying outcompetitive bus services operating against the railway on routes where savings may be effected in the train services has been taken in the Hawkes Bay district. The Napier-Hastings route, where road competition has practically emptied the trains of ordinary passenger traffic, is the first to receive attention, and for about three weeks past the first five buses purchased have been running under railway control. Yesterday eight additional buses which were purchased at a satisfactory price were taken over. The position, therefor*1, is no longer complicated on that particular route.by the competition of opposition services. The commercial manager of the Department, Mr. D. Eodie, who conducted tl'i negotiations for the purchase of the buses referred to, has now gone South with the object of instituting a new bus service in lieu of the present tram service in the Oamaru-Tokarahi-Ngapara district. A 20-seater bus has been purchased and sent to Oamaru for the inauguration of the new service. All drivers of buses who were employed by the firms bought out at Hastings have been taken over by the now owners, and are now in the employ of the Bailway Department's motor section. The extension of the railway bus service to Eskdale is being considered as a result of the Department's new status as owners of the road-operating fleet. REDUCING TRAIN SERVICES. The matter of reducing local train services where this can be done without interfering with the general efficiency of transport by rail and road, is now also -receiving attention. In inaugurating its new services the Eailway Department will be in a position 1 which will place it on all fours with private companies, as it wHI pay licensing fees, taxes, etc., just as private companies do. It intended that all new machines required for extension of the railway passenger bus service shall be purchased in New Zealand. The Department intends to keep a separate set of accounts in connection with the running of ita motor buses, in order that it may obtain accurate figures relative to the financial results of the undertaking. When a sufficiently long experience of the new service to show general average results has been obtained, the figures available should prove a useful guide in forming a decision regarding future operations.