RAILWAYS AND AGENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1930, Page 9

RAILWAYS AND AGENTS

BOOKING OFFICE SHARED. ■ • COMMISSION ON TICKETS. The Railways Commission has not recommended the closing of the Queen Street (booking office along with those in Symonds Street, Karangahape Road and Rotorua, says the New Zealand Herald, believing that although the percentage of expenditure over total receipts is considerably in excess of that of the Wellington and Christchurch city booking offices, there is the likelihood that when the nqw station is opened more business will be done in the centre of the city. , The commission has not mentioned, however, a situation in, the Queen Street office which might arouse mirth were it not for the fact that a losing department is not a fit subject to joke ■ about. The office is shared’’ by the Tourist Department. The railway counter is on the right and that of the Tourist Department is along the back. The Tourist Department is a passenger agent for the Railway Department, and if an intending traveller goes to the tourist counter to arrange a tour the official will make out tickets for rail or road and reserve accommodation. Upon the rail fare the Tourist Department receives a commission from the Railway Department of not less than 5 per cent. The counters are so close that the railway official may hear the tourist official selling the railway ticket and taking the money. If the traveller should go to the railway counter and purchase a first-class return ticket to Wellington he pays £6 10s Bd, and of course the Railway Department receives the whole amount. If he takes two steps more to the tourist counter to secure accommodation, he will probably make one transaction, including the railway fare, in which case the Railway Department receives 6s 6d less if the commission is only 5 per cent. In actual practice doubtless when a seat reservation is required .the tourist clerk walks round to the railway clerk and gets him to book the number and then goes back to his customer, who could not fail to hear all that is said if he wished, and’ completes the transaction. Of course a note could be written and handed across if necessary.

Two doors up the street is another agent of the Railway Department, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. If that firm is arranging a tour it also will sell a railway ticket and receive its commission. Alongside is another railway passenger agent, the Mount Cook Tourist Company. There also a railway ticket ! may be secured. The point that strikes one as slightly Gilbertian is not that tourist agencies should be able to sell railway tickets near by, but that in the same office the Tourist Department should be acting as agent for the Railway Department. The office is open for 12 hours a day and four or five railway officials are required to staff it, Jts service is a great convenience to the public, but why another department I should work on a commission basis - J ~“-'7side is difficult to understand,