TRAMS AND POWER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 10

TRAMS AND POWER

REVENUE HIGHER

BETTER TRANSPORT YEAR

CREDIT OF £9500

The annual reports and summarised facts of the Municipal Tramways and Electricity Departments are now is- ■ sued, giving in greater detail the, result of the -year's working than .was announced at the close of the twelve months to. March 31. Revenue was higher in.all three sections (trams, buses, and power) and though working expenses were, also higher the transport year ended with a marked improvement in that the debit balance of. £1550 of 1936-37 was changed to a credit' of £9509. The net surplus on the electricity accounts, £ 14,365, was considerably lower than the surplus of £29,404 of the previous year, but, on the other hand, special expenditure and appropriations, £50,767, were substantially higher than the total for 1936-37, £36,709. The report this year is illustrated by photographs of types of tramcars and buses built during the year and pf the new plant at the Evans Bay power house. The area served by the trams and buses has a population estimated at 118^000, and the number of passenger trips, over a couple of city blocks or full concession card trips, was 44,710,838 (about 700,000 more than in 1936-37), say, 370 trips a head, allowing a margin for visitors. Fifteen years ago, 1922-23, 37,500,000 passengers were carried on the trams, so that there has been a big increase, in spite of motor transport, but the population was then only about 95,000. Still, that worked out at 390 rides a head, so that private cars have made a hole in tramway business. The trams last year (that is, during the twelve months to March 31) ran over four million miles, with an average return of 2s a mile and average expenses of Is 6&d a mile. Buses, which carried only 1,315,000 of the 44,710,000 passengers, ran 310,000 odd miles,. and came out-with heavier working expenses (19.92 d) than receipts (15.3d) a mile. Taking trams and buses together, the percentage of working expenses to revenue was more favourable (79 per cent.) than in 1936-37 (81 per cent). Only one new tram and one bus were added, making 197 trams and 27 buses, but there will be substantial additions during this and next financial year, not only necessary for Exhibition traffic, but overdue for daily suburban traffic. Work upon . new trams and buses is now well in hand.

CASH AND CARD FARES. ] The analysis of cash and card fares over various distances given in each annual report is always a surprise— that so large a proportion of passengers fail to take advantage of the concession tickets, and more passengers than ever last year preferred to dig down for twopence and threepence than to hunt through their pockets for a card. In 1936-37, twenty million trips were made on one-section cards,, but last year these concession trips dropped to sixteen million, and cash fares, at 2d, x went up by over a million, to 6,560,000, in round .figures. Two-sec-tion cards,- which were regarded as hardly worth while/when the shilling cards gave ten onersection rides, became a good proposition when, the shilling card gave only' eight trips; and the use of the 2s two-section cards (nine trips) went up from 1,#98,000 to 3,659,000. Cash fares for two sections increased by over . a million, 'to 5,186,000, so that when, card and cash fares are taken together, the shortdistance passenger returns, which is the business that pays best, came but a little better, by over a quarter of a million more fares. Over five million long-distance concession trips were made, which was a fairly big increase on the 1936-37 figure (5,197,024 and 4,573,019) and the revenue, affected again by the higher charge per ride operating in part only in 1936-37 increased from £70,694 to £81,203. Cash returns for three-, four-, and' five-section rides were also higher.

Relief workers' tickets fell away in use to about half, and the ThorndonMidland corner concession, never a very popular ticket, has slumped since the Thorndon railway station was done away with. The school, concession figures are interesting in that the number of day trips fell from 1,447,316 to 1,256,596, but evening technical school passengers rose from 46,060 to 57,680.

Bus transfer concession tickets, for which at times there have been such demands from certain suburbs, were not rpuch availed of, 7416 passengers, as compared with well over 13,000 in the previous year, using them..

All the bus concessions sold better than in 1936-37 except the half-crown twelve-trip ticket, from which only ■ a trifle of revenue (£8 15s for the year) came in. Observation buses carried over ten thousand sight-seers and brought in £1500; ih the previous year 7600 passengers made these trips, paying £1140 in 3s fares.