MIRAMAR TRAMS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 507, 14 May 1909, Page 3

MIRAMAR TRAMS.

rO— : PRESENT PARES REDUCED. A lengthy discussion . took piace , at last night's meeting of_ the Miramar Borough Council on the subject of tram fares. The outcome-was that a reduction was'made, and passengers may now proceed from' tho Government Station : ,to; Miramar for 4d. :onordinary car's, and ;sd:' on'certain special cars on Saturday afternoon's. : : Councillor M'Leod' moved :;;"That. the original faro of Id. per trip, in regular service cars- over the line between. .'Miramar North .terminus and:the city-boundary; be reverted to from June 1, and that tho principle- of charging spccial 'fares on special ears be adopted.": ; '■ v.;.--Councillor Cooperi moved as an amendment that tho fares on tho Miramar North and Seatoun lines be 2d., and-that coupon tickets be issued. -Councillor Petersen said that a high fare would mean that city people would not go out to .those suburbs; . The amendment was put and lost. • Tho Mayor Baid ;that, ho had never encountered such an unsatisfactory piece of business during his twenty years''municipal experience. An addition of -Id, was put on Miramar North, where thero was a loss of .£ooU, and the addition was very just. Now it . was. suggested. that there , should bo 2d fares on special cars, but the council should Jiavo proper reports as to how the addition .was working, Tho. moment this-was tried the on y way to make it work was to have through fares , from the city. . 'Unless the through fare was; fixed at 4d.,. say, from Oourtenay Place to Miramar, the thing would ibo doomed to failure. The city boundary wa3 only a few; hundred yards, from the tramway junction, and the footballers would get ! off there instead of paying 4d/ for the return trip. He thought the council was acting very unwisely, as it was running right into amalgamation with the city, and, if the council was not very careful, this would be dono on the city's terms and not'the borough s. He was opposed to both motion and amendment; he was in favour of having matters as they stood at present until such time as an opportunity was given of seeing how the present system worked. ~^ le , ™'carried, Councillors MLeod, M'Clclland, Petersen, and Brodie voting for it, and the Mayor and Councillors Uooper ana Bell apamst. - • . The City Electrical Engineer (Mr. Stuart Richardson) advised that owing to. the store at Miramar being burnt/ ho was unable to say how many monthly tickets had been sold. In his opinion, moro should bo made out of the spccial cars than under tho present arrangement, and, if it was desired to increase tho revenue without, penalising tho residents a 2d. faro should bo charged on both lines with concession, tickets to residents. It was certain that the council' could not profitably earrythe traffic below an average of Id. per mile. This being the case, the council should make as much as possiblo out of the trippers on both lines. ' . Tho report was adopted. ■It was decided, on tho motion of Councillor Brodie, seconded by Councillor M'Clelland that the faros on all special cars between the city boundary and Miramar North bo 2d.