TRAMWAY BUSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 189, 11 August 1931, Page 7

TRAMWAY BUSES.

Private Contractor Submits Offer.

A proposal by a private contractor to serve the Tramway Board’s Bryndwr, Springfield Road and Northcote Road bus routes has been considered by the Works Committee ofc the Tramway Board. The Committee reported to the board yesterday afternoon that as a private contractor had advantages in regard to wages of drivers not enjoyed by the board, the committee hoped to arrange a contract to the benefit of all parties concerned. The Chairman’s Views. “We cannot trade in a route” said the chairman of the board, Mr E. H. Andrews, yesterday, “and we must retain control of the fares and the timetable under the regulations. We can make arrangements to sell a private contractor the buses, or he can buy new ones, but he must have an agreement with the Tramway Board to run the services under our conditions. “We have had several offers during the past two or three years. In fact we have always been getting offers. This time there is a possibility that something will come of it, although as yet the scheme is too much in the embryo to be able to state definitely. The proposal of the board is that the contractor should take over all the petrol buses and all the services, and run them more or less in the position of manager, as we have to retain control. This has not been accepted so far, but some other arrangement may be come to. A private owner can in many cases cut the costs by driving himself and doing his own repairs. This has proved most satisfactory in the case of the Templeton and Avonside services.”