WATERFRONT ROAD SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20713, 5 November 1930, Page 10

WATERFRONT ROAD SERVICE.

One feature of the decision the Transport Board has made about passenger services on the new waterfront road can be approved unreservedly—that it has granted a licence to a private omnibus operator in preference to undertaking the task itself. All its present omnibus services are run at a loss—for various reasons, including the fact that it submits to more onerous labour conditions than those imposed on private companies—and the more rigidly it refrains from new adventures in this field the better. The residents of the districts to be served asked for lower fares than those fixed, but had to be satisfied with the suggestion that the rates could be reviewed later if necessary. For the rest, they are the chief beneficiaries of a new, shorter and speedier route provided at heavy capital cost, which must be borne by a wider community than themselves- That circumstance should restrain them from being too exacting in their demands. Apart from the general features of the arrangement, the most interesting point is that the company operating the new service will not be permitted to carry passengers to or from the baths at Point Resolution. This means also that people now carried by a Transport Board service to Point Resolution will not be catered for round the waterfront road. Their service, which has been described as essentially supplementary to the tramways, produces an annual loss of more than £ISOO. It may well be considered whether the board should not do something about these circumstances. There will be at least a summer traffic to the baths, and for all wishing to go to them from the city side the waterfront route will be the obvious one. The board might quite logically go a step further in divesting itself of responsibilities which can be better delegated than carried. This could be done by arranging with some omnibus operator, either the company running to St. Heliers Bay or somebody else, to carry passengers between the city and Point Resolution, catering for those wishing to use the baths and for anybody else from the neighbourhood. Thus it might go a step further toward the ideal arrangement of leaving the omnibus field altogether and concentrating on tramway management.