THE TRAMWAYS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 177, 22 April 1919, Page 7

THE TRAMWAYS

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES INCREASE IN PASSENGERS CARRIED • (By "Civis.") . The detailed figures in connection with thu municipal electric tramways year present some highly interesting features, which tend to siiow the growth of the service, and incidentally account for'the unpreventablo overcrowding of cars, which has been so frequently complained of by correspondents during the year. As a matter of fact Wellington has been in precisely the same position as every other growing city during the past four years. Under ordinary conditions the management is able to keep reasonably near tlio growth of the service by making car bodies and fitting'them to the imported triicks. When tiie war commenced, how-" ever it was at once made clear to everyone that such essentials as under-truc.ks and wheels (most of which had supplied to British suppliers by Krupp's, of Essen, Germany) could no longer bo supplied, so the City Council had to turn to America, but there the position wa» almost as bad, for although America was not at war in 1914-15-16 her factories Mere blazing aivay in the manufacture of munitions of war for the Allies. So the Wellington City Corporation, in com. moil with hundreds of like bodies all over the world, had to bide its time, and, being a live, thriving centre, the pressure on tlio servico became more acute as time advanced. This position, it is hoped, will be remedied within tho coming year. Coming to those sets of' figures which denote how the revenue had been raised, it is interesting to note that the number of penny fares decreased to the number of 31,845 during the year, whilst the number of twopenny fares increased by as many as 511,074. This may be taken broadly to indicate that as the business part of the city continues to expand, and in doing so encroaches on what was formerly residential areas, people who 'formerly were able to reach their homes by travelling one section only have been forced to move out to the "twopenny area"—another impost on the cost ot living. Yet whilst the twopenny cash fares have increased by over half a million usors, the threepenny, fourpenny, and sixpenny cash fares show an appreciable falling oft', due probably to tho public's keener appreciation of tho value of the concession tickets, which have been sold in largely increased numbers during, tho year. , The following table will give the public a capital idea of tho trend of the means of revenue production as far as tho Wellington' system of tramways is concerned :— I Passengers Passengers ' Class of i carried, ' carried. Ticket used. ' '1918-19. 1917-18. Id. cash faro 1G,12G,535 10,161,080 2d. cash fare 6,204,229 5,(592,255 3d cash faro 1,738,279 1,804,834 4(1. cash faro 479,215 511,887 Gd. cash fare 36,338 04,439 Is. casli fare (observation car) , .337: G3l 2s. cash fare (observation can) .-. 1,981 3,7119 Is. cards 2,073,150 2,133,J5(1 Corporation service 117,900 110,340 Postal service .! 324,000 297,000 Is. workers' conces- ' sion C97,20S 727,188 Is. Gd. workers' concession . 459,558 445,00S 2s. workers' concession 1G8.432 151,248 2s. universal concession 3,390,064 3,002,448 2s. Gd. universal con- | cession 909,738 904,288 3s;. universal conces. sion '•100,582 419,158 Scholars 777,81G (107,204 Total passengers car- . vied .....' 33,9G5,G92 33,150,953