SAVING THE UNIVERSAL FARE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 131, 1 December 1930, Page 8

SAVING THE UNIVERSAL FARE

By economising in bus-mileage, tram-mileage, and workshop time, the City Council hopes to save the universal fare. It is admitted that this concession imposes a heavy weight on tramway finance, and that, when the inner tramway sections fail to produce a substantial counterweight of profit, the universal fare may press down the financial balance on the wrong side. It is argued, however, that people were induced by this fare to live in the more distant suburbs, and that it would be a breach of faith with them to make a change now. It must be remembered, however, that the inducement to suburban living— so far as transport was concerned— was not merely cheapness. When the council, under the spur of private competition, introduced the universal fare it also introduced timetable and other improvements. More Sunday morning cars were run, and the overloading which had been complained of for years was lessened. Some of these benefits have since been lost, yet with many people, to whom travelling comfort means, a great deal, they were, just as much considered as the sixpence, shilling, or eighteenpence saved on the universal fare. By all means let the universal concession be saved, if this is at all possible; especially if the saving can be brought about by economies which should always be practised. But it must be remembered that there are other things also to be considered— the comfort and convenience of the car-users, and the interests of people in the first, second, and third sections who derive little or no benefit from the universal fare. We can pay a reasonable price for the universal fare; but the effort to maintain it must not.be advanced as an excuse for subjecting all users of the service to discomfort and inconvenience.^