TICKETS AND DELAYS.

Southland Times, Issue 20524, 28 June 1928, Page 3

TICKETS AND DELAYS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —May I use your columns to suggest to the powers that be a much-needed reform in regard to the issuing of so-called concession tickets on our trams. Now that the whole system is “one-man” something should be done to obviate the bad delays now caused by tfie selling of these so-called concession tickets by the tram-drivers. Here is an instance of what I mean. Under the present “In—pay as you enter, out — pay as you leave” system a passenger travelling to town must board the car, buy a card and sometimes get change, tear off the necessary number of coupons and then place same in the box. Meanwhile, the other passengers are waiting outside in the cold and rain or crowding inside without paying. Passengers leaving town and wishing to buy their coupons on the cars — and they are as like as not mothers with parcels and children—go through the same performance thereby delaying the unloading of the car sometimes for two or three minutes. These delays are both unnecessary and annoying to the business man or woman. I suggest as a remedy that the Tramway Department open a box-office at the Post Office Square say, between the hours of 12 noon and 2 p.m. and between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the sale of these coupons. Invercargill’s notoriously conservative people may object to going about ten yards to buy their coupons, but if the sale on the cars is stopped on the same day as the boxoffice is opened the people will soon know where to get their coupons and will see the obvious benefits of the system. It seems superfluous to add that the drivers would not then be worried by people wanting to buy coupons before the car stops and they would also be able to give more attention to the fares. The “one-man” system is a success, but the service needs speeding up and the above seems a very simple way of avoiding delays.—l am, etc., “SYSTEM.”