MUNICIPAL TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 113, 14 May 1937, Page 8

MUNICIPAL TRANSPORT

Special interest attaches to the annual report, presented to the City Council last night, on municipal transport (trams and buses) for 1936-37 because more than half the year—-September to March-—came under the 40-hour week legislative provisions. This inevitably involved considerable extra expense and to meet it the fares were raised accordingly. The result shows that the special budgeting of the department was nicely calculated. The revenue has increased, in respect of the trams, from £350,109 in 1935-36 to £385,285 in 1936-37, an amount of £35,176. The working expenditure, oh the other hand, rose ' from £269,367 to £308,027, an increase of £38,660 or very close to the £40,000 estimated as the extra cost of the 40-hour week. There is a decrease in the capital charges, when the two years are compared, of £1790, and the net result shows a credit balance of £3505, compared with £5199, a decrease of £1694. Under the circumstances this is quite satisfactory. It would be interesting to know, however, whether the number of passengers on the trams has decreased as a result of the higher fares. Presumably, these figures will be published later. The municipal bus accounts continue to show a debit balance, this year of £5067, as against £4407 last year, an increase of £660. This has the effect of producing in the combined municipal transport accounts a debit balance of £1562 as opposed to a credit of £792 last year. This is not.a formidable deficiency when the magnitude of the operations is considered. The buses can hardly be expected to pay, as they do not share in the cream of the most profitable traffic in the districts close to the centre of the city, but have to serve as yet fairly thinly-populated areas. As these fill up—and this they are doing steadily—the bus traffic figures should improve and eventually show a profit. As the Mayor emphasised, the movement of tramway traffic, as well as the buses, will have to be watched with the greatest care as there is little margin to come and go on if any emergency should arise. Sooner or later Wellington will have to go into the whole question of municipal transport in the light of the newer developments in Britain and America, but for the moment the position seems sound.