FARES IN BERLIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20621, 21 July 1930, Page 6

FARES IN BERLIN.

LABOUR, EXPERIMENT,

UNIFORM TARIFF FAILS./ RETURN TO FORMER SYSTEM. One of the most interesting Labour experiments in Berlin has been declared to bo a failure. Tin's is the uniform tariff for all methods of locomotion—the threepenny ticket, which permitted the purchaser (o ride on the tram, underground, or motor-omnibus, and change from one to the other provided lie proceeded in the same direction. This price l.ad already advanced a halfpenny from the inception of Ihe enterprise, two years ago, when the city of Berlin look over the underground and the buses from a private company, and decorated these as well as the trams with the municipal arms, a bear rampant. Unhappily, (he symbolical hear proved less rampant. than the economists, who are now in arms against theorists with the welfare of the great mass of traffic passengers at heart, says the Berlin correspondent of (he Observer, London, Not only was if intended that the working man win lived a long distance from his employment should get there as cheaply in the morning as lie who lived only a stone's throw away—an cricouragement to tho suburban building societies which are now springing up in Germany—but family excursion; on Sundavs to the beautiful green woods and lakes that skirt the city on all sides were to be within reach of all The Bus Dslicit. The new programme provides for a return to the old system of five stations for twopence halfpenny on the underground, and their equivalent on Ihe trams, with an extra halfpenny added on changing to a motor-bus. The system has broken down over I he. motor-buses, still persistently regaided as a mode of conveyance for luxurious people only/ They will now be a halfpenny dearer to begin with than trams anr; underground* The alarming deficit suddenly acknowledged by (lie Berlin Traffic Company recently /s declared to bo due to the increase of the petrol-prices. These do nob run in the city and the east-end, where the tram is the mam link between one district and another. Running expenses are higher than for electricity, and those who live in residential spots where the motor-bus runs may bo expected to be ab|e to pay a higher fare What has actually happened is not merely the surprise of the new tax on petrol. This has been sufficient to clap threepence extra on every taxi fare now paid in Berlin, where, by the way, taxi drivers still say, "Thank you," with sincerity, for a 10 per cent, tip, whether' they are men of the people or German or Russian aristocrats earning their lining as chauffeurs. Vast Army of Unemployed, Berlin's deficit this time is due to nothing else but the steady burden ol unemployment, which has Jed to at least 70,000 men and women remaining at home in the morning Instead of going to work. This alone, it is estimated, would account for a deficit of £500.000 during

the past year There were 50 per cent, more unemployed in Berlin last month than afc <his time in the previous June. The newlyelectrified Metropolitan Railway, which persistently refused to join the combine and kept up second and third-class the five-station for .threepence system, saw itself more than justified when 'lie original uniform twopence halfpenny fare was raised last Christmas. .Not only have certain of its old passengers returned tc it, but there is talk again of reinstating the two-class system on the underground The argument runs that it is no use being democratic if there still remains a vast majority of bourgeois in their best clothes who prefer to take a secondclass ticket to a third,, and sit .among those of their own kind, away from those burdened with baskets, tools and the gen> oral appearance of working hard for theil living.