WORKERS' TRAMS

Evening Star, Issue 18393, 29 September 1923, Page 8

WORKERS' TRAMS

ALLEGED INADEQUATE SERVICE. Tho following letter has been forwarded to the town clerk by the secretary of the Otago Labor Representation Committee: “As the result of investigations which tho above committee waa urged to make at tho instance of a large number of workers who are compelled to use tho trV B going to and coming from work, 1 h<v.*f been instructed to write your council calling attention to the altogether inadequate provisions made by the tramways department to supply workers’ cars during tho hours in which these are most needed. Wo find that one ‘worker’ is provided for each route, morning and evening. There is one exception to this rule—that of Norman by, upon which route two ‘ workers ' are provided morning and evening. • The provisions made seem, in our opinion, altogether inadequate, considering the largo number of workers who come daily from the suburbs. Let us take St. KUda as a case in -point. Tho 1 worker ’ car leaves St. Kilda for the at 7.25 a.m. It arrives nt the Stock Exchange at 7.38 a.m.—too early for tho 8 o’clock worker and too late for the 7.30 worker. A car of the 1 combo ’ typo will carry approximately ninety passengers. This means that out of the whole suburb of St. Kilda only ninety people can avail themselves of tho tram concession to workers; and even out of that number there is no means of di&bovonng whether tho passe'ngers are bona fide workers or mere train-catchers. The position is the same at 5 p.m., and at the lunch hour there is no concession at all. The whole arrangement seems to us to be extremely inequitable, and wo believe that it is capable of adjustment, with an increased revenue to the tramways department. “We suggest that a special workers’ ticket bo issued, to be available between the hours of 6.30 a.m. and 9 ajn., 12 noon and 2 p.m., 4.30 p.m. ami 6.50 p.m.; the conditions to he Id for the first two sec. tions or any part thereof and Id for each succeeding section. These tickets should be issued to bona fide workers only, in much the same way in which apprentices ’tickets are now issued. Tho council could determine tho amount of wages which would constitute a worker, These tickets would be available on a*i cars during tho aforementioned hours. Suppose, for example, that any morning in the week all tho workers of St. Kilda decided to wait for the workers’ car. What, would the tramways department do in that case? Under tho present arrangements it would carry ninety of those people for Id, andthose of the remainder who did- not choose to walk 2d for the same journey. On wet, mornings the lack of tram facilities is felt more acutely, because then everybody wants to ride, and the result, is that the available trams are shamefully overcrowded. Moreover, in addition to the discomfort to those passengers who have been fortunate enough to gam a foothold, this manner of working avutsr an unfair tax on the rolling stock bv Irvin# to in ake it do something which was never intended. Overloaded cars mean late cars, which in turn means that tho workers fa ho use them art? late in getting to work. Inhtiiy case, there is no reason why those workers who are unable to avail themselves of the opportunity of ndinp- on that one car should be debarred from securing the concession. Surely the. worker who commences work at. 7 a.m. is as much entitled to the. concession as tho one who starts work at a later hour. At present a largo, number of workers walk to work, not because they have no wish to nd-\ but. because the cost of tram tares on the whole day’s journey is too great,. We have heard it said that people ought io walk more, but while ih.a-t may apply to those whose duties are not of a, very arduous nature, the general worker as a rule has his strength sufficiently taxed during his hours of employment- without appearing on the job in a tired state. “Thc-n, again, it is highly desirable that a, workers’ liumh hour servico should he rum If the tickets we have "referred to were instituted a, great number who at present are forced t-o squat down at their work and nmrich unappetising food ami drink cold tea could po _]y:uic for a hot lunch, and both the department and the employers wcuid gain thereby. We are strongly ot opinion that if tho department devoted some attention to these matters it would not only he supplying a long-felt want, hut it would also ho adding considerably to its revenue.”