OVERCROWDED BUSES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 518, 22 November 1928, Page 16

OVERCROWDED BUSES

ORTH SHORE DISCUSSION CONDITIONS EXAGGERATED The No. 2 (North Shore) Omnibus Licensing Authority met at Devon port last evening. Birkenhead Borough Council intimated that it did not offer objection to a partial pooling of services by Messrs/ Lynch and Halliday and Mr. Purdy during slack hours of the day. A complaint by a member of the Takapuna Borough Council about overcrowding on Takapuna buses was accompanied by comment on the constitution of the licensing authority. The Chairman, Mr. E. Aldridge: “He thinks because we are the Devonport Borough Council, we ” “ . . . Have no brains/’ completed another member. It was. decided that the complainant be asked to give specific instances of overcrowding. Mr. Aldridge said that he had found that the North Shore Transport Company was strict with its drivers, and any complaint was always met by courteous remedial action. The North Devonport Residents and Ratepayers* Association considered that all bus services in Devonport were at times so overcrowded as to be a menace to the travelling public. The inspector reported that at rush periods on wet days, and on extraordinary occasions, there was overcrowding, though owing to the fact that standing passengers crow’ded about the doors the overplus of passengers seemed worse than it really was; in fact, in some casfes the legal limit was not exceeded. Mr. W. S. Campbell explained that, living in North Devonport, he was familiar with the conditions, and what overcrowding occurred at rush hours was really a convenience to people wanting to get home quickly. It was decided that bus owners be invited to keep within the legal licensed number of passengers. The Brown’s Bay Bus Company submitted a summer time-table allowing services to Devonport and Bayswater. Mr. T. Walsh pointed out that Brown’s Bay people complained that the terminal of the service at the bay had been shifted from the wharf, and that this was an inconvenience. The timetable was provisionally sanctioned.