RAILWAY TICKETS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3447, 31 May 1898, Page 2

RAILWAY TICKETS.

Tan’railway authorities might with advantage to their business, certainly to the convenience of railway travellers, change their principles with respect to the issue of through aud return tickets. At present what is called a single ticket is only available for the day of issue and cannot be " broken.” To give an example, a case has been mentioned to us in which a gentleman bought a ticket for Wellington at New Plymouth. Having occasion to stay at Marton, he found next day that he could not complete the journey ho had paid for without paying again for the trip from Marton to Wellington. Later on the price of this second ticket was returned to him on representation of the facts of the case being made. But the method on which such a remission is made is clumsy and inconvenient. If money is to be recouped in this way, why should the passenger bo put to the trouble of asking for it ? Why not allow him to take the value of hia ticket out as he pleases ? The same contention applies to return tickets. With regard to these a strange system of concession based on distances prevails. For example, a return ticket covering a distance of from one to 10 miles is available for two days* If it is for from IX to 200 miles it is good for a month ; and for over 200 miles it can be used for two months. It will be observed that these conditions take small account of passengers who, in the course of business, tiavelshort distance?, but may find it necessary to extend a trip a day, and for whom, therefore, a " stop-over” arrangement should be provided. Return tickets ought to be mado available until the purchasers choose to use them. The objection that will perhaps be made officially to that is that an indefinite extension of return tickets gives facility for transferring them and so defrauding the department of revenue* There is not much danger of such a result in this country, however—very much less than in the United States, where the principle we are advocating obtains. So with regard to single tickets. They should be capable of being broken. If a person buys a ticket from (say) Wellington to Featberston, and thinks fit or has occasion to break his journey at the Upper Hutt and stay there a day, he should be able to do so without paying extra for the rest of his journey, seeing that he has paid for the trip through. That is the principle which obtains in America, in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe, and it should be adopted here.