TRAMS AND BUSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19805, 28 November 1927, Page 12

TRAMS AND BUSES.

Si,-.—We are told that the City Council is anxious to avoid putting too great a burden on the ratepayers. Why, then, did the Tramways Committee wait until they were forced to bring the tram fares down? Would it not have been better if they had shown a little more foresight when the private bus owners had the monopoly ? We are now asked to give the feeder buses "a fair trial." Surely it must be obvious to the council that its patrons do not intend having any more to do with the "feeders" than they can possibly help. The only solution to % this problem seems to be the appointment of a thoroughly representative transport board, with the bus management quite distinct from the trams, though not necessarily in competition with the latter; or, alternatively, the board to take over both services with power to license private owners who may be willing to establish such services as the board considers itself unable to successfully conduct. It is*to be hoped that the Tramways Committee will see the reasonableness of such an arrangement as I have suggested, and will do their best to facilitate matters in this direction. ' Advance. : ,

Sir,—The letter by "One of tbe Sufferers" is typical of "the attitude of many suburban residents to the transport question. He says: "The question of the loss to the ratepayers does not enter .into the matter." Not to him. But to the ratepayers of the city it is the whole matter. By what right do suburban residents (many of them living in districts which have train services') call upon the City Council to provide them with luxury buses-—as "Sufferer" savs "quick and cheap?" The solution is for suburban residents to provide their own bus services and if the City Council tries to get "control" then city public opinion will be with suburban public opinion in insisting that that control shall cease. But so long as suburban residents merely clamour for bus services at other people's expense there is going to be trouble. Suffering Ratepayer.

Sir,—l do not understand the figures as published in your Friday's issue. Take Boundary Road; tbe takings are given at £35 per- week, and the loss £BS. Well, it is absurd to say that it costs £l2O a week to run a single bus, for that is all that is needed to give us a better service than we are now getting. Without claiming any expert knowledge, I should say, at a guess, that £lO a week for drivers and £2O for petrol would more than cover running expenses. What becomes of the rest or the £120? It is evidently time that private companies were allowed to take up the business again. Mt. Edenite.