MORE MORNING BUS TRIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22935, 4 July 1944, Page 6

MORE MORNING BUS TRIPS

Further Consideration Proposed The Timaru Borough Council decided last night that the Omnibus Committee should give further consideration to a proposal urging extra morning trips to enable housewives to shop in the mornings and return home before the mid-day buses. Representations had been made by the National Council of Women on the subject, and the omnibus engineer (Mr J. McKim) stated in a report that it would be possible to provide the services asked tor on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from the mileages saved through recent deletions. The Omnibus Committee recommended that action be deferred. Cr. Wheeler said that women with young children returning from school wished to get home before mid-day, and it was very awkward for them, if they were carrying a child in arms, to cope with their parcels in the crowded mid-day buses. The Council could select two or three routes and could give the idea a reasonable trial. Cr. W. L. Richards (chairman of the Omnibus Committee) said that he was very willing to have the matter referred back to the Committee. He emphasised that the 29/- extra cost involved had not had anything to do with the Committee’s recommendation to defer action. Similar trips had been run in the past and the patronage had been poor. The bus service was entirely at the mercy of the Oil Fuel Controller. They had been permitted a certain mileage per annum and they had to keep within that mileage and endeavour to provide for double trips in wet weather and for additional services in the summer holidays. They would also have to restore the Sunday services later on. If the matter were referred back to the Committee he could assure the members of the National Council of Women who had formed the deputation that their representations would be given serious consideration. It was not a question of profit or loss, but a question of mileage. The Mayor iMr A. E. S. Hanan): Yes. that is correct.