HONEST BUS TRAVELLERS

Evening Star, Issue 22524, 17 December 1936, Page 8

HONEST BUS TRAVELLERS

BOX FDR FARES AVAILED OF Bournemouth recently placed a box at the door of its buses and trams into which passengers might drop their fares on alighting if tho conductor had failed to reach them while they were on board. In the first week of their use £8 16s Bd—the equivalent of 2,120 penny fares—was collected in this way, •says the ‘ Listener.’ It does not follow that this entire sum would have been lost to the tramways if the boxes had not been installed. Some of tho passengers who used them would no doubt have run •after the conductor or left their faro with a stranger to hand on. Bub it is safe to assume that at least some of it was found money; and for the rest the boxes are a great convenience to conscientious passengers at rush hours. The system has long been in force in Glasgow, with excellent results. Recently the suggestion was made that it might well be introduced to London. The L.P.T.B. say, however, that there is little chance of tho device being adopted. These are the reasons given: “ Wo consider,” said the board, “ that most of our passengers are perfectly honest. They know they are under a legal obligation to find tho conductor somehow.” Glasgow regards the popularity of its boxes as a sign of the honesty of its citizens; London, on the other hand, apparently takes the honesty of its citizens as a reason for not having boxes. Tho board adds, by way of warning to the dishonest passengers (who presumably do not use the boxes in Glasgow) : “We have a secret system which enables the conductor to keep a pretty close chock on passengers who have paid and those who haven’t.” The moral appears to be contained in the old refrain that nearly drove Mark Twain mad—“ Punch in tho presence of the passeng-aire.”