INQUIRY NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1927, Page 8

INQUIRY NEEDED

According to the return presented to the City Council last night there was a loss on the operation of Corporation motor-buses of £7958. This was not an actual running loss, as tho total operating cost covers capital charges, including £4245 allowed for depreciation. The position, however, is sufficiently serious to call for searching inquiry. It would be of advantage, for example, to know why the revenue per bus mile has fallen from 14.73 dto 11.95 d and the passengers carried from 5.4 to 4.1. This reduction has come in spite of the fact that the Corporation service, for part of the 1926 period under review, has been free from private competition. Some people would possibly say that it is explained by the absence of competition. In the minds of some citizens there is a suspicion that the Corporation would be glad to take the buses off the road, and is inclined to do so as soon as the operating loss furnishes an excuse. But this is the wrong attitude. Motor transport has a part to play in the Wellington and suburban system-L-not in substitution for electric tramways but as a serviceable and payable adjunct. It is the Council's business to discover how that purpose may best be served. Profitable lines of investigation would be: (1) The effect of the cash fare system in preventing the buses from being used to the best advantage in rush hours; (2) the loss of patronage from such restrictions as tho no-smoking rule; (3) whether the time-tables upon some routes aro not so restricted that much custom is lost; (4) whether a full service would not pay where a meagre skeleton service is a dead loss.