CITY TRANSPORT FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19659, 10 June 1927, Page 10

CITY TRANSPORT FINANCE.

The outstanding feature of the tramway balance-sheet submitted to the City Council last evening is that a small but appreciable profit on tramway services has been turned into a substantial loss by the motor omnibus fleet the department operates. This statement of accounts must be accepted with a certain reserve. It is not clear how a distinction was made between returns from tramcars and buses where the same concession cards were available on both. That point is not vital in establishing that the motor-bus ventures of the council have been far from profitable. Most people will be prepared to accept the general statement even if they question the exactness of the figures produced. The position disclosed is sufficiently definite to demand from the council very careful scrutiny of its motor-omnibus commitments. It must be devoted to conditions as they are now rather than to those obtaining in the period covered by the balance-sheet. Last year was abnormal. Competition from private enterprise ruled for a considerable part of it. When this ceased the council had to take over various fleets of vehicles, some of which needed, as the report shows, extensive reconditioning. Services were in a state of flux, and fares remained at their old uneconomic level. Unless greater success than at present seems probable attends the running of the services in the current year, however, the council will have the duty of deciding definitely what it will do about a very doubtful venture. The ratepayers will not be disposed to accept with equanimity a continuance of the dead loss on omnibus running disclosed by the accounts just published.