PENNY WISE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 1

PENNY WISE?

NEW BUS FARES FALLING-OFF IN TRAFFIC If the omnibuses run by the City Council in conjunction with the tramway service did not pay before the new fares were introduced there is every indication that, in spite of those who do continue to use the buses paying increased fares, the total returns will show no improvement on the figures of the past. Some of the services are hot affected as much as others, but a watch kept on one or two services this morning by a SUN representative indicated a very different state of affairs to that ruling last week. The service most noticeablj' affected was that tc Parnell Park and Point Resolution. The former in particular shows a falling-off that will most seriously affect the returns. Prom 8 to 9 o’clock the buses coming into town have, in the past, been either full or crowded, but the position is now entirely different, and the average load this morning was not more than six. The usual passengers were observed to. be making their wa by the back streets to the end of the first section ending, on the tram line, this being as near for many of them as joining the tram at the top of St Stephen’s Avenue. Having got as far as the end of the first section, many of them were completing the desertion by walking over the hill to the city. Users of this route used to be able to get a concession ticket for 2s 2d, carrying them right out to the park: now it costs 3s. If they have no ticket the cost is 4d against 3d. There is a distinct feeling that there has been an injustice, especially among those who used the buses in the past to join the tram, and go in the direction of Newmarket—a few hundred yards that used to cost 2d and is now increased to 3d. The one section tickets cost 2s 3d, or more than the two-section used to cost. RIDICULOUS SERVICE “This service is now ridiculous,” remarked one of the former users who has transferred his allegiance. “It never receive any great patronage * under the new rates. The increased fares have not only driven off those who were really tram p.assengers, but it has led the people who were supposed to be served by the buses to make other arrangements.” He suggested that th€: solution was to return to the old fare;, but to insist on a 3d minimum out of town, stopping those people who should travel by tram, but who more frequently occupied the seats of the people the buses were supposed to serve. “There is no necessity for the minimum on the inward trip,” he remarked. “The proper people get the seats and if there is room for the others they might as well travel by the buses. That would make for efficient service.” Another usual traveller suggested that the use of trams to take the people to St. Stephen’s Avenue and the use of the buses as feeders would be a better idea, a transfer system being adopted as in the case- of the Maori Hill trams at Dunedin, where the passenger pays 3d and goes up the hill bv cable tram, then changes over to electric tram. ILL-CONSIDERED Parnell Park route is not the only one showing a falling off in traffic, but it is the most serious. It is the general opinion among all those connected with the buses that the high minimum fare should only be used going out of town, tending to conserve the space for the people who were entitled to it. and that there was no need for the minimum at all at the non-rush hours. They think the change has been illconsidered, and is going: to cost a great deal more in lost fares, than will be gained in increases.