HAS TRAMWAY DEPARTMENT POWER TO RAISE BUS FARES?

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 32, 30 April 1927, Page 1

HAS TRAMWAY DEPARTMENT POWER TO RAISE BUS FARES?

NEW RATES OPERATE TO-MORROW. BUT AUTHORITY TO DO SO IS CHALLENGED

There is no doubt about increased tram and omnibus fares coming into operation to-morrow in Auckland, but it seems to be doubtful whether the Tramway Department has the right to increase the bus rates without first having obtained permission from the No. 1 Licensing Authority. An expert on municipal law says emphatically that such authority should have been secured before the public was called upon to pay higher fares.

The law on . the subject is clear enough even to laymen in respect of the rights of private bus owners •who were driven off the roads in most centres by the intervention of the Government on behalf of municipal transport authorities. In their case it is necessary to make application to the licensing authority for power to increase bus fares. Perhaps the law has a different application to tramway authorities who also run omnibuses as feeders to the trams, but this is not made clear in the Act dealing with the question. It is pointed out that section 10 of the,Motor Omnibus Traffic Act provides definitely that “With respect to every motor-omnibus service authorised to be carried on pursuant to this Act, the licensing authority shall prescribe the routes to be traversed, the time-tables to be observed, the fares to be charged and such other conditions and matters as may be prescribed by regulations under this Act, or as the licensing authority thinks proper.” The position in regard to penal fares is rather ironic, since the tramway authorities alone were excluded from the necessity to impose them. So, now that private bus owners generally have been thrust out of competition it seems that tramway authorities have no difficulty in raising fares without making application to the higher authority. Many passengers will hope to see the obscure position cleared up. The new rates on trams and omnibuses will come into operation in Auckland to-morrow. School children concessions operate on Monday. On the trams the increases only affect those travelling more than three sections, the rates on the first three sections remaining as at present.

For four sections the rate will be increased Id for cash, and the 12-ride cards from 3s 3d to 3s 9d. On five sections, cash fare 5d instead of 4d, 12-ride Cards 4s 3d instead of 3-s 3d. Six sections, cash fare 6d instead of 4d, cards 4s 6d of 3s 3d. Workers’ cards available for more than three sections will be 3s 3d instead of 2s 9d. ALTERATION IN BUS FARES Varying alterations have been made in the bus fares due to the differences in the volume of traffic offering and the length of the routes traversed. The new rates in detail are: Buckland Road route.—First section, 3d cash, 2s 3d for concession card; two sections, 4d, and 3s; three sections, sd, and 3s 9d; four sections, 6d, and 4s 3d; five sections, 7d, and 5 s 3d. Point Chevalier route.—One section, 3d cash, and 2s 3d for concession card; two sections, 4d, and 3s; three sections, 4d, and 3s; four sections, sd, and 3s 9d; five sections, 6d, and 4s 6d. Richmond Road route. —One section, 2d cash, and Is 6d for a concession card; two sections, 3d, and 2s 3d; three sections, 4d, and 3s. The fares to Parnell, Hillsborough and Waikowhai will not be altered. On the feeder buses the only increases are from Is 4d to Is 6d for 12 rides on the first section, and from 2s 2d to 2s 3d '’nr 12 rides on two sections. Ui • the existing scale the fares cha: on the buses were the same as tli ;oe. for the trams. The introduction of the 3d cash fare for the first sections on the Buckland Road and Point Chevalier routes has as its object the restriction of the use of these buses to passengers who depend on them for their transport from the city, and who are on occasions kept off the vehicles by one-section riders who are fully provided for by the trams.