TRAMS IN MELBOURNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 12

TRAMS IN MELBOURNE.

NO PENNY SECTIONS. PROBABLE LOSS OF £400,000. Penny sections on the tramways operated by the Melbourne Metropolitan Tramways Board may not be expected until a very considerable improvement occurs in the financial situation and in the patrontage of the trams, according to tho chairman of the board, Mr. A. Cameron. Several municipal councils and other organisations have suggested that the reduction of the fare for a single section to Id would immediately increase the tramways revenue. Mr. Cameron said recently that a full inquiry had been made, and the report that ho had received showed that the additional passengers might be expected to pay fares amounting to about £200,000 a year. Tho reduction of fares by a penny would involve a reduction of revenue of about £600,000, so that tho net result of the decrease in fares would be a decrease in revenue of rather more than £400,000 a year. Tho figure obtained by calculation from statistics of the alteration some years ago of the single, section fare from Id to 2d was £421,000. This could be made good only by a general metropolitan rate of 5d in tho pound. It would not be practicable, Mr. Cameron added, to make shorter sections for a penny faro, for if sections were shorter than one mile many passengers would prefer to walk and save the fare. All fares would ho affected, as tho present charge was 2d for the first section and Id for each subsequent section. Fourfifths of the metropolitan population lived within half a mile of both tram and train, a duplication of transport which the country could not afford. Not coordination, but rationing, of services was required. Under present conditions, Mr. Cameron added, the board had been providing a tramways service at less than cost for the last seven years. As soon as it became economically possible a reduction of fares would be made. Recent attempts in Brisbane and in the United States to increase revenue by reducing fares had failed signally.