OUR RAILWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 12101, 6 November 1908, Page 3

OUR RAILWAYS.

FURTHER CONCESSIONS. Details of railway concessions are gazetted, the most important being those in regard to. suburban fares and commutation tickets. They come into operation on November 9. Fifty-trip* commutation tickets are to be extended to distances nob exceeding twenty-five miles, and reductions will be made in the charges, varying from Is in the case of the seven-mile distance to lie for the old maximum of twenty miles. A first class commutation ticket over twenty miles formerly cost £2 14s, but under the new scale a ticket for a twenty-five-mile journey will cost 4s less than that formerly charged for twenty miles. Family commutation tickets are extended from twenty to twenty-five miles,Mid reductions made in the charges. A fifty-trip ticket for a ten-mile journey formerly cost £1 18s first class, while the now charge will be £1 14s. The old maximum was twenty miles for £3 13s, but the new scale permits a twenty-five-mile journew for £3. Workers’ commutation tickets for twelve trips are extended from twenty to twenty-five miles without reduction in the former charges. The twenty-five-mile ticket will cost 13s. A new scale of reduced suburban fares is scheduled for distances of twenty miles and under, a»d it is provided that where a combination of the suburban and ordinary fares gives a cheaper fare for the through journey thou if computed on ordinary mileage rates, the combined rate shall be charged to stations outside the suburban area. It has frequently been represented that in charging freight upon measurement bulkv packages consigned from Lyttelton to'Christchurch have had to pay upon four times their actual weight. The Railway Department will not in future, if charging by measurement, charge more than double the amount payable upon the actual weight. Road metal, scoria, shingle, gravel, and other materials for road-making required by local bodies have hitherto been carried in lots of not less than ten tons at half the classified rates for class q, the minimum charge being 3s 6d per ton. The department in future will charge three-eighths the q rates, with a minimum of Is 6d per ton.