Motorbus Fares.
Page 2
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More About the Case For and Against Increases in Greater London.
By the Editor.
The vexed question of maintaining the existing motorbus fare-schedules in Greater London, or raising them by material percentages, was generally examined by us a week ago. The complexity of numerous factors was admitted, while several of these were reviewed at some length. The article concluded with a reference to the anomalous circumstance that one can now travel at least 10 miles by motorbus for the price of a pint of beer-6d.
We are, of course, well aware that the crux of the problem is not found in the 10-mile trip, but in the rating of trips which vary between half-a-mile and three miles, and it is, perhaps, expected of us in 'some quarters, that we should examine, in such detail as in permitted to us, the case for and against increases and readjustments within those every-day distance limits of popular travel by motorbus. Anything which we now add is partlyby way of stimulation of interest.
Id. Fares Must Be Retained.
The fate of the Id. fare may be regarded aG of less importance in motorbus working than the fate.of the 1d. fare. The former can certainly be abandoned without compunction, but not so the latter. It is seldom correct to contend that a id. passenger crowds out a 2d.-one, and thus causes a loss, for this view pre-supposes that a 2d. passenger is always ready to get into the vehicle, which is far from being an accurate premise. If there were always an excess of 2d. passengers offering, we should have less to write
• against the abandonment of the id. fare. It cannot be abandoned in London, whatever may be the advantage of its absence from provincial fare-boards.
Change Deferred Extinguishes Dividends.
We know that it is extremely difficult to make definite changes in fare-scheduling, but we believe the officials on the commercial side of motorbus operation are now ready to admit the imperative call for revision • they know more of the case against than we do, for they must otherwise have put up the fares long ago. The officials on the engineering side are finding inclusive cost per mile mounting steadily every quarter, if not every month. The overloading of the motorbuses is adding very greatly to maintenance charges, and is causing breakages to occur with a frequency which is menacing. Successive applications are made for increases of wages, and in some cases almost before the results of an arbitration have been notified. Materials are both more costly and more difficult to obtain, whilst the increase in the price per gallon of petrol is a matter of common knowledge. Fuel is now costing London motorbus proprietors approximately 21c1. per vehicle-mile more. than it did before the outbreak of war.
Is id. Per Passenger Per Mile Enough ?
We are in a position?, thanks to various sources of information, to state without hesitation the existence of imminent necessity for a revenue per motorbus-mile of is. 3d., if motorbus operation in London is to resume paying its way during the remainder of the present year. The Inclusive cost of running at the moment may not have reached that figure. We in fact know that it has not done so yet, but we are looking ahead, and dealing with contingencies which threaten at any moment to become events.
An essential revenue of Is. 3d. per Motorbus-mile, if it has to be co-ordinated -with a fare basis of id. per passenger-mile, can only be realized if the average , loading of the motorbuses throughout the day is 15 passengers per vehicle. We may not state the aver
age loading which is obtained, for we only have the figares in confidence, but we must point out the bearing upon proposals for increased fares of the risk of a resultant reduction of the average loading.■ Th last case might be worse than the first, from the revenue point of view, whatever the small advantage on the maintenance side. This relationship is one concerning which fare-fixing officials have nightmares. It appears to us that the average loading and the total revenue can only be jointly increased by a judicial introduction of many new. short-distance id. stages all over London, in conjuaction with a, considerable number of increases of older 1d. stages to 2d. stages. We hope the complication of new 11d. stages will not be introduced. The travelling public will admittedly have to pay more, for both new and old stages up to three miles in length, but they are. cheerfully paying more ie every other direction every day of their lives, as we pointed out last week, and the continued benevolence of the motorbus companies is becoming associated in the minds of fares with some strange scheme of socialism. The L.G.O.C. and other London companies, so far as our information goes, are not on the' point of beiag municipalized, nor are they in possession of any secret guarantees that they will one day be recouped for their free gifts of 4d. for 3d., 3d. for 2d., and 2d. for id., to the public. Why go on?
The Id. Fare Where Retained Must Be a Paying One for Business Reasons.
If the average loading of a London motorbus is 15 persons, and if the necessary revenue is is. 3d. ptr vehicle-mile, it is clear that each passenger should pay id. for each mile that he travels. Many millions of • passengers are carried by the London motorbuses much more than one mile for id, but this practice is no longer an economical one. We think that a lessee might be taken from the practice and. experience of the Grasgow Tramways Corporation in so far as it can be made applicable in principle to the motorbus situation in London. Glasgow tramcars, of course, have a record density of traffic, the average loading being now slightly in excess of 30 passengers per car throughout the day. The Zd. fares in Glasgow do • prejudice the potential results of id: fares, in that proportional distances are given for the two coins. The id. traffic has been reduced as a result by some 20 per cent, of the proportion which it fornierly showed when the 1d. fare covered only one-third of the distance which was 'given in return, for the Id. fare. Here is the cue for London motorbus proprio tors. They must not give too much for Id. • May it not be well in London to introduce numerous short Id, stages of only two-thirds of a mile in length, and to charge 2d., with the minimum number of ex: ceptions, in respect of all stages which are anything in excess of one mile, but less than two miles? If id. fares are in fact dearer per unit of distance than 2d. fares, and if it can be secured that the same average loading is ensured along those stages with short-dis4 ta.nce passengers (at id.) as was previously ensured with passengers at 2d. per heat1,it is clear that for the same load the revenue per vehicle-mile will be higher. Alternatively, a smaller number of passengers on the ma: stage basis will be required to produce the same revenue. it may be made to pay to 'discourage the higher fare, by encouraging the lower one, but also lowering the distance in more than ratio. These are not new factors. They are well known to all traffic departments. We ask, are they • correctly applied in London to-day ? .