SUNDAY BUS SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1933, Page 11

SUNDAY BUS SERVICE

LOWER HUTT-EASTBOURNE

RAILWAYS PROPOSAL

REFUSED

(Special to the "Evening Post.") PALMERSTON N., This Day. An application by the Railway Department to conduct a Sunday bus service between Lower Hutt and Eastbourne met with strenuous opposition from the Eastbourne Borough Council at the sitting of No. 6 Transport Licensing Authority ,in Palmorston North yesterday. It was stated that the Department operated 30 buses oa the WellingtonHutt service and catered for 14,000 people, who paid Is to secure a connection with the Eastbourne service. The: distance' between Lower Hutt andDay's Bay was 8.3 miles, and it was proposed to charge a flat rate, of Is Gd return for adults ar/. half-faro for children aged 3 to 12 years. ' The Department would undertake not to pick up any passengers on the- return journey who did not have a ticket issued from Lower Hutt. Mr. C. L. Bishop, Town Clerk of Eastbourne, opposed tho application on the grounds that the present service was adequate for the district and that other buses would only create competition that was unwarranted, with duplication that the Act was designed to prevent. The Department could conduct. a feeder service from Lower Hutt to connect with the existing Eastbourne service, which had been on the road for six or seven years. Traffic had decreased 25 per cent, in the last three year's. Thirteen return trips were made on week days and seven on Sundays. The service was also augmented on holidays with an additional time-table from Petone. The Railways Board itself opposed the duplication of services, and even if the Department's request, was approved, a penal fare should be enforced for coming into competition with the present services. Tho Department would be leaving the Eastbourne people the skim of the traffic. FEEDER SERVICE SUGGESTED. Mr., E. W. Wise, Mayor of Eastbourne, said thdt the Borough Council jrelied on Sundays and holiday traffic to compensate them for dead Tunning during the week, and he pointed out that the Railway Department had objected to the council making a deviation through the heart of Petone. It should be easy for the Department to manage a feeder service to connect with the Eastbourne services. For The Department, Mr. Doyle, bus manager, argued that the Eastbourne service could not cater for 28,000 people. Mr. Wise, in reply to :the; Chairman, said that in. the event of the Department's application being turned down his council would be prepared to consider favourably the extension of the present service to provide a connection for Lower Hutt residents, if that were necessary. . ■■. - ■ : Mr. Bishop stated in answer to the chairman that the gross receipts in.1931 were £13,526 and in 1932 they ; were £9627. The trading expenditure "in 1931 was £9166, leaving a gross profit of £3560, or a net profit of £2000 after meeting interest and depreciation. Last year the. gross profit was £1600an<I the net profit £400. Tho original capital in the bus servico was £8000, which had since been written down. , In tho last three years £4500 had been transferred in cash from the bus department to the ferry department. :Mr. Doyle said there had been no | end of requests from Lower Hutt people for this service, which was to cost them Is 6d as against the present cost of 2s 6d. It was stretching the imagination to say that the service would be duplicated. The application was refused. .