FLAT-RATE TRAM FARES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 565, 18 January 1929, Page 8

FLAT-RATE TRAM FARES

IN spite of Mr. P. S. Morton’s benign and ardently-expressed desire to place all city tram-users on the same footing so far as fares are concerned, the Auckland Transport Board decided with wisdom yesterday that there is more urgent work to he done before consideration can be given to a proposal for the adjustment of tram fares. Mr. Morton is the champion of the flat-rate system of fares which is at present in operation in Wellington, and he visions new days of prosperity for the Auckland tramways when the system is introduced in this city. Not only does he contend that it will increase revenue by over £-150,000, but that, in addition, it will bring other millennial blessings. Services, he says, would he speeded up; fare dodgers would be brought to hook, and, last of all, accidents would be avoided. This is a lot to urge on behalf of the three-penny fares, hut Mr. Morton, without success, endeavoured to convince his colleagues yesterday that these alluring visions would become realities. The chairman of the hoard got to the heart of the problem when he said that all the extensions of the tramway services at present planned were estimated upon the present system of charges, and therefore it was impossible for the hoard to undertake experiments, the outcome of which, to say the least, is problematical. It is perverse optimism only which would lead to the belief that the adjustment of fares to a three-penny flatrate standard would increase tramway revenue. As the position is at present 60 per cent, of the tram-users pay up to a limit of three-pence, and most of them, in fact, pay two-pence or a fraction of that amount. It is quite easy to see that the trams are going to lose a portion of this valuable patronage if the fares are raised to three-pence. To make the system work to the advantage of the Transport Board, it would be necessary to have an assurance that none of the one-section or two-section passengers would stop using the trams—and there is not the remotest hope of this being done. The position in which the hoard would inevitably find itself is this: the portion of the passenger group that was bearing the burden of the change would use the cars less, causing certain reduction in revenue, and the long-distance pasengers, who would receive the change with gratitude, would he paying less into the transport coffers. Working under the present system of charges, the city tram sei-vice has a hard enough battle to fight, and the effect of Mr. Morton’s proposal is obvious. There is still a great deal of work to he done, and although there is a certain allurement in cheap flat-rate fares, so far as the passengers are concerned, it has to be remembered that the Transport Board has an elaborate public service in its charge, and the. rejection of an experiment in favour of other and urgent work is to be commended.