FLAT-RATE FARES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 8

FLAT-RATE FARES

rIE City Council has taken a very wise stand in refusing to endorse suburban clamour for a flat-rate fare on the tramway system. To embark on such an experiment without absolute assurance of financial success would be a costly blunder, yet so far the advocates of the proposal have failed to produce figures in support of it. The sponsors of the flat-rate scheme are no doubt actuated by the best possible motives, but just at present it is curious that they do not leave the Transport Board to conduct its own business in its own way, according to the powers with which it is invested by Statute. There is no evidence that suburban administrators have authority to form themselves into a sort of advisory committee to tender gratuitous advice to the hoard, and if this were done with reference to the Harbour Board, the Hospital Board, or the Power Board, the proceedings would be deemed impertinent. Fortunately the Transport Board has the last word, and even if the local bodies which are to discuss the subject tomorrow night reach a conclusion overwhelmingly in favour of the flatrate fare, the board is in no way obliged to heed their overtures. Naturally, if their arguments are convincing it may do so- But if the hoard had seen any possibility of gaining an advantage from the introduction of a fiat rate, it would undoubtedly have brought it in long ago. It has a competent staff to conduct searching inquiries into the results of such experiments overseas, and it is certainly in a position to present better statistical arguments than the hazardous methods of conjecture favoured in less-informed quarters. It has to be remembered that the transport administrators have not in the past shown themselves to be especially conservative, or averse from initiating experiments. They were willing enough to try the penny fare two years ago, hence it must be assumed that the flat-rate fare has even more remote prospects of immediate success. In a community that is very heavily dependent on the public transport systems, this is a very regrettable thing. It means that the cost of daily travel from the extremities of the system will continue to be high, and that the ideal forms of domestic life in fresh suburban surroundings will be discouraged. Nevertheless, the sad fact must be faced—that in the present situation of the tramway organisation it is not possible to confer benefits on long-distance travellers at the expense of the ratepayers who live nearer the business centres. It may be that the flat rate is a thing of the future, within the compass of a restored tramway system which will have far greater resources than it possesses today. In the meantime the board will be wise to study all other practicable methods by which it can cheapen and so popularise its services.