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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 4 (July 1, 1937)

Railway Department's Enterprise — A Bold Cut In Fares. — Less than Half-penny a Mile

page 56

Railway Department's Enterprise
A Bold Cut In Fares.
Less than Half-penny a Mile.

By A bold stroke of railway fares policy, second class passenger travel on the suburban sections of the New Zealand railways is being greatly cheapened. Hitherto the worker, if he reaches the city (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch or Dunedin) before 8 a.m., has enjoyed cheap travelling; under the new tariff, the rest of the second class passengers are to have some of it, while the worker will be benefited in another way, in that the 8 o'clock restriction will be removed. The distinction between the 8 o'clock worker and the 9 o'clock worker will disappear. The suburban worker who reaches the city before 8 o'clock will under the new scale pay weekly 3d. more (a farthing a day on six days' travel) but the departmental statement adds that, as his sons and daughters who are 9 o'clock workers will pay less, the weekly family travel cost will be much reduced.

As an example, the case of three members of a family travelling ten miles to work on both types of existing weekly tickets may be taken. Assuming that one member went to work at 8 o'clock and the other two at 9 o'clock, they would in the aggregate pay 16s. under the present scales but only 12s. 9d. under the new one.

The worker will see that some of the cheapness which he himself has enjoyed on trains is now extended to his children, and he himself will not be in an 8 o'clock category distinct from the 9 o'clock class. Disappearance of distinctions may go even farther than the abolition of the clock-time discrimination. The Minister of Railways also anticipates that, except between Christchurch and Lyttelton, first class passengers will so take advantage of the new unrestricted second class fares that the present half-empty first class carriages (suburban) will become four-fifths empty, and will disappear.

Passing from the case of the daily traveller on suburban railways to that of the occasional traveller, the cheapening effect of the new suburban fares is almost startling. Occasional traveller, used in this sense, includes all that vast suburban population that goes to the city, but does not go every day, and any traveller (urban, suburban, or rural) who makes occasional use of suburban railways. Full details of the cut in fares appear in the departmental statement; it will be sufficient here to take the figure for Upper Hutt (twenty miles out, suburban limit) and quote the new six-trip “bearer” ticket (transferable, but not admitting break of journey) as giving six trips to Upper Hutt for 4s. 6d., or 9d. for a trip of twenty miles, which is less than a halfpenny a mile. Six trips equal three return trips; so for an outlay of 4s. 6d. on a ticket lasting a month, a city dweller who would like a run to Upper Hutt on any day of the week (or a Valley resident seeking the city) can make the trip at any time (not only weekends) for 1s. 6d. return, as against 3s. now. This 50 per cent, cut is a tremendous concession to all occasional travellers. When before has the public seen travel fares halved at one blow? The mobility to and from the city of the suburban family (as apart from the already concessioned early worker) will be immensely increased. And if city-to-suburbs occasional travel is not spurred by such a big reduction of fares, what will spur it? The many people who have said Upper Hutt or Trentham would be a good place to go to if the fare were about eighteenpence” have now a chance to make good.

As the railway fare always adds itself to the suburban rent, these suburban concessions are a big factor in the housing campaigns as well as the general expansion of New Zealand metropolitan centres. Electrification is a local blessing, but this fares boon is general over all suburban sections. In the past the Railway Department has said to the outer suburbs: “We will give you lower fares when you collect a larger population.” And the suburbs have answered: “We will collect the population when you give us the lower fares.” That impasse lasted for years. The Minister of Railways has now made a remarkable attempt to end it.

(From the “Evening Post,” Wellington.)