WELLINGTON TRAMWAYS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 272, 1 November 1932, Page 8

WELLINGTON TRAMWAYS

DIFFICULTIES OF LAST YEAR. DEBIT BALANCE OF £9683. Wellington, October 31. The annual report of the City Corporation tramways department for the year ended March 31 last sets out in cold figures the difficulty which was experienced last year by the management in endeavouring to maintain its services in the face of falling revenue. The debit balance of £9683 was the largest and most unfavourable balance to date, though Wellington’s tramway position is much brighter than certain other tramway towns, but the report also shows that the proportion of expenses to revenue is being steadily brought down. A summary of the information embodied in the report affords some interesting comparisons. Particularly out--standing is the decrease in the number of passengers carried to 38,278,552, as compared with the 44,285,509 of the previous year, a figure which had remained approximately steady since 1926-27. The decrease is almost wholly accounted for by the loss of tramway business, for the number of bus passengers, 1,049,501, was within 100,000 of the figure for the previous year.

It appears that Wellington people walked very much more last year than in previous years, for the number of one-section cash fares fell by over 1,000,000 to 7,067,990, as compared with 8,172,436 (and 8,747,644 in 1926,27), and one-section concession riders fell away from 10,341,612 to 8,876,292. In 1926-27 and the following year there were 10,500,000 one-section trips clipped from concession cards.