PUBLIC OR PRIVATE TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 21, 25 January 1940, Page 10

PUBLIC OR PRIVATE TRANSPORT

Petrol rationing is a war measure and temporary; but the war aim sought—conservation of sterlingis one which should be sought also in peace, though by other methods.

Rationing and control are not desirable peacetime methods, but there are others which could be adopted. Questions raised on the reimposition of rationing give a nint of them. For instance, an inquiry was made yesterday whether the railways would improve the service to cater for persons who had been in the habit of using private cars to drive to and from work and would now be unable to do so. Last night the Minister of Supply announced that railway excursion rates would be available in February to compensate people who had intended using private cars to cbme to the Exhibition. These two references show how we may practise national and private economy in peacetime by improving means of public conveyance so that there will be less use of the more expensive means of private travel. In the war the economy is enforced by rationing.' In peace it may be brought about by the more acceptable method of persuasive inducement.

There must be many thousands of cars in use daily in New Zealand because the owners are not satisfied with the alternative means of publictransport. This is not really pleasure motoring; it is more convenience and, to a certain extent, comfort. It has developed because public transport generally has not kept pace with advancing ideas. This applies to railways, tramways, and bus systems in all parts of New Zealand. The deficiency of public transport is not just in the comfort of seating, but in the shortage of seating, or it may be the inponvenience of the time-table. When the business man has to stand on a slow journey and must fit all his engagements to an awkward (time-table, perhaps b,e late for wqrk or dinner if he misses a particular train, bus, or boat, he thinks it is worth while using the car. If this happens with great numbers of people it means that, apart from increasing diversion of sterling for petrol, we have parking problems in the cities, heavier roading costs, and threats of losses in public transport operation. Petrol rationing will now compel many thousands of people to return to the public transport systems, and these systems will have to be extended and improved to meet the demand. If the public authorities are wise they will not make the improvement in a niggardly way, saying in effect: "These people have to use the public transport. They must put up with what they can get." Rather, the public authorities will, by studying the needs and wishes of the travelling public, use the opportunity to win back permanently some of the patronage that has been lost.