FARES HIGHER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 10

FARES HIGHER

TRAMS AND BUSES

THREE SHILLING CARDS

THE BIG POINT

Up till the present Wellington's I transport system has stood out from , other New Zealand systems in having considerably more than paid its way, but that an unpleasant change has come about was made clear during the rather i ' roundabout diseussi./i at the last meet- £ ing of the City Council. All the world s over, tramway and railway systems have suffered serious financial setbacks, and the trouble has been set down in a broad sort of way to hard times and to Changing transport modes, to competing buses, and private cars. Probably it will be found, however, when detailed figures are made available, that Wellington's tramway system difficulties may be more definitely explained, and, though, it may hurt a lot, traced down to the very popular, very beneficient, threepenny fare for long-distance pasCouncillors arc insistent that the threepenny fare must be defended to the last ditch, and every suburban tram passenger will agree, but hard financial facts take a lot. of walking round. Naturally the council has made a virtue out of necessity, for the plain fact is that the threepeny fare was introduced as a counter to the threatened inroad upon tramway business by the coming of the private motor-bus towards tho end of 1925. Cheap travelling to the outer areas is a true ideal, but it is very doubtful whether the council would have risked it but of necessity. REVENUE DECREASE ANTICIPATED. It was recognised when the threeuennv fare was. introduced that -theie would be an immediate decrease in tramway revenue, the probable chop for the first year being stated at tio,----000 but, on the other hand, it was argued, but with less force, that the increased business which would result as a consequence of the lower fare would increase the revenue. In 1920 moreover the Tramway Department s finances were sufficiently buoyant for such a decrease in revenue to be regarded cheerfully, and the council had no fleet of buses running at heavy loss nor anticipations of such a fleet, nor o± the cost of the buying out of the private machines. The private buses threatened to do the tramway system a lot of harm, and the council decided or. a fare as low as possible to keep tramway passengers on tram cars, pointing out, of course, at the same time the benefits that would accrue through people being abl- to live away from the city without the handicap of expensive ■ travelling. Since then the number of passengers carried on the trams each year has gone up by as much as a inililon and a half in one year, as in 1927-28, but, as was noted in comment upon the figures for that year, the increased number cf passengers, "has naturally brought about an increase in revenue, though not so great an income as might be expected from so great a jump in the number of passengers. The reason for this is that something like.a million of the additional (million and a half) passengers were long-distance people, travelling upon the threepenny fare." Tho same comment, with varying figures, might have been made with equal force each year. . CITY TRAFFIC CARRIES SUBURBAN. The position is that it costs so much (about 19id in 1928-29) to run an average tram car mile, and if the receipts per car mile do not sufficiently exceed this figure difficulty arises. Obviously, the greater the distance people are carried for a given far. (3d) the less the car-mile receipts on such-runs. Moreover, as more and more people havo moved outto the suburbs more fr quent tram service has had to be providedmore and more miles which return receipts not sufficiently in excess of running expenses. It has for many years been asserted that the healthy state of Wellington's tramway finance was brought about by revenue from short-distance fares, not long-distance fares, in other words, that the revenue from the city and first sections out carried the outer sections on ' its back. Figures in support of that assertion have several times been gi.en. A remark made by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Luckie, on that point is very ' significant. Tho twopenny fares, he said, had not increased in the same ratio as the threepenny fares. The Atlas of the financial system, the chap -who carried the load, appears to be weakening. MULTIPLE LOADING PAYS. This standing still of revenue from ' short-trip passengers may be due to several causes; possibly chief among them a disinclination of people to take a 'car for a section or a part of a sec- ' tion, and possibly a direct result of so many people going to the suburbs to live. Whether private car transport —"lifts" for friends —has had much effect in this regard is doubtful. The "catch-penny" city tram business is the most profitable because a car may, ■fill and empty several times between ' Lambton Station and Courtenay place, 'at twopence (or a penny-half-penny by card) for each person who gets aboard, the same seat being occupied more than once, obviously a more profitable business than carving passengers on Jong straight runs for threepence. It is worth noting that Auckland, in an endeavour to increase revenue from short-trip passengers, two or throe, years ago reintrodueed penny fares on the city section, at tho same timo reducing the section length, but after about three months' trial found that it was anything but satisfactory and returned to twopenny fare. WHY AUCKLAND RULED OUT FLAT RATES. Auckland's transport difficulties have- been severe, acute, in fact, for some years past, and about five months ago a.decision was reached for a sub- • stantial increase in fares all round in •the hope of retrieving at any rate a considerable part of the loss of £23,000 which then appeared probable on the year's working. A flat rate of three- ■ pence for any distance (as distinct from Wellington threepenny fare over .two sections) was considered by the Auckland Transport Boird, but was ruled out largely as a result of the report upon the proposal made by the Manager, who pointed out that the rapid development of the extreme ends of present routes would mean a more frequent service to the termini, involving increased working expenses (which has been tho case in Wellington), and as there would be no increase in short distance travelling, mounting working expenses would necessitate higher fares. In the United States, he added, flat fares, which were almost universally five cents, had now in the majority of cases gone up to ten cents. Wellington's case is different, in that first and second section business is still profitable, and is thus an offset against less profitable long distance haulage at threepence per passenger, but the ratio of single section fares fs falling, and that unpleasant fact, coupled with very heavy losses on bus running, gives one much cause to won:

der whether the threepenny fare can stand, even though the bus loss can be substantially reduced. BUS LOSSES THE GREAT HURDLE. But even though the threepenny long distance fare may thin down tramway finance to an unpleasantly ribby condition tho transport system would be more healthy were it not for the heavy losses made in bus operations,- heavier this year than in past very unprofitable .years. Whether tho reason is that the Mil runs are bad bus runs, that the public do not sufficiently patronise them, or that the management is in part at fault —as some councillors have suggssted—the fact is that bus losses are a very heavy drain upon none too great tramway profits. The success or failure of transport finance depends upon the relation of average car mile revenue to ear mile expenditure: if the car mile revenue (kept low by unprofitable long distance running at threepence per passenger and heavy loss on bus operations, and not sufficiently boosted up again by profitable short distance running at twopence and a penny halfpenny per passenger) does not sufficiently exceed car mile expenditure (which includes power purchase, wages, capital charges, and necessarily heavy appropriations for reserve and renewal and ether funds required-by law) theji' financial difficulty is ahead, and must be met either by some m.oalis to increase mile revenue (which generally moans higher fares), or to reduce car mile- expenditure, by economies which sooner or later must come to an encl.