KEEN COMPETITION

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 April 1927, Page 13

KEEN COMPETITION

HUTT ROAD BUSES A COMMUNITY RIVAL (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Monday. After a struggle lasting several months to obtain a licence to ryn a motor-bus service to and from Lower Hutt, a proprietor of a fleet of buses has entered the field as a community competitor. His assertion was that others on this run had combined to keep him off the road and persistent appeals to the licencing authority for the district failed to secure him a licence. At one stage a licence was actually granted, and an appeal to the Transport Appeal Board by the opposition companies quashed his right to put his buses on the Hutt Road service. This enterprising proprietor has now formed what he calls a Sports Community Club and encourages free membership. Members who travel in what he chooses to term the motors belonging to the club pay whatever price they care to on the run to and from town. The service, which has just commenced, has had a fairly successful start. Suburban trains are keenly feeling the competition of motors along the Hutt Road, and the rail passenger traffic is now largely restricted to those travelling on workers’ and other concession tickets. There are now six services running alongside the railways, and tickets from the different companies’ buses are made interchangeable, which suggests a combination of interests to capture business from the railways.