Councils Should Attack Workmen's Fares
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M.P.T.A. Conference
Papers on American Public Transport Practice and on Discipline Underline Current Problems in Municipal Transport " HE time is long overdue for the members of our Associa
tion to make a combined attack in the presentation of a case for the abolition of concessions to workpeople," said Ald. F. Jamieson, IF'., in his presidential address to the Municipal Passenger Transport Association this week. He was opening the annual conference of the Association at Eastbourne, on Wednesday.
Ald. Jamieson, who is chairman of Preston Transport Department, referred to the approaching Jubilee of the Association, which was founded on March 21, 1902. After reviewing the development of municipal transport in the past 50 years, he outlined some of the present-day problems. Concession rates for workmen, he believed, were anomalies in present circumstances. It would be no hardship under existing standards of wages and conditions to operate a fare structure which would spread the burden equitably and not require one type of passenger to subsidize another, he said. He then turned to the problem of fares.
There was an inclination, he believed, to attempt to cover rising costs by increases in fares. But it had been demonstrated that economies in operation, a higher degree of use of existing fleets, staffs and facilities, together with the exploration of sources of income apart from traffic revenue, had been successful in maintaining fares at low levels.