VALLEY BUSES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1931, Page 7

VALLEY BUSES

LOWERXPAEES SOON

DEPARTMENT'S PROPOSALS

Reductions to be made in the fares in the Hutt Valley bus service were announced at the meeting of the Pe-' tone Borough Council last night. | For a long time the Petono and the Lower Hutt Borough Councils have been urging the Railway Department to reduce the fares, and last Saturday representatives of the two councils waited upon the General Manager of Railways (Mr. H. H. Sterling) on the subject. As a result, the Department submitted proposals for reduced'fares to the meeting of the Petone Council. The Wellington-Petono single faTe will be reduced from Is to 9d, and a return-ticket will be issued for Is 3d. A six-trip concession ticket, availablo on rail and road, will bo obtainable for 33 9d, as compared with the present one of six for 4s 6d. The present single faro of Is from Wellington to Lower Hutt, and the six-trip rail and road concession ticket between, Wellington and Lower Hutt for 4s 6a, will be. retained, but a Is (id return ticket will be issued. The fares between. Ngahauranga and the Petone Railway Station, the Petone Railway Station and the Lower Hutt Post Office, and the Petono Railway Station and Randwick crescent will be reduced from 6d to 3d in each case. Tho proposals have to go before the Railway Board and the Wellington City Council (as the traffic licensing authority) before they are put into practice. THE COUNCIL'S COMMENT. Tho Manager of the Bus Department, Mr. W. P. Miller, attended last night's meeting to explain the proposals to tho council. Tho Mayor (Mr. D. M'Kenzio) saia he thought that the reduction would be a decided improvement, although, he personally would havo liked to see tho return fare from Petone to Wellington Is. Councillor H. A. Ryder was of the opinion that the Petono business people like to see tho1 fare ss. He complained that at rush hours the Department did not run trailer buses aa the private buses used to, and consequently Lower- Hutt people got the seats in tho buses to Wellington and Pcton© people had to stand. . The concessions to bo made in the fares were no more than what tho public were entitled to. It was unfair to'charge 2s return on the Petone-WelJin'gton trip and the same on the Wellington-V.I.C. and the Wel-lington-Moera trip. ■ Councillor'V. A. Noble asked whether the buses to the railway station at Petone could be niade to arrive just before the departure of trains instead of seven or eight minutes too early, as -at present. Mr. Miller replied that the complaints had been that the buses were arriving at the station too late for the people to- buy tickets. Ho promised to look into the matter of running trailer buses at rush hours and assured the council that the Department _ would endeavour to give tho best service possible. Councillor E. T. E. Hogg said he thought the proposals were an honest attempt to meet the people's decreased spending power. "The best attempt a Government Department has ever made to meet the desires" of the people," wa,s how Councillor V. E. Jacobson described the proposals. He added that the treatment received from the bus drivers had been consistently of the best. In his opinion'the cheap, local fares m the "Valley would have-th*e:, effect of bringing tho people of the outlying districts into Lower Hutt and Petone to do-their shopping. ' ' ' . The question of extending ' school children's travelling privileges to Saturday morning was raised by Councillor J. C Burns. Most.of the children were expected to tako part in organised games on Saturday mornings, he said, and they should be allowed to travel on their school tickets for that purpose on Saturday mornings. The council passed a motion approvipg of the proposals and thanking the Department. Tho necessity of instituting the new fares at an early date is to be nrged upon the Department.