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STORY ON BACK PAGE

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SQUASH FARE BOOST
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“A fare increase can only lead
to furether reduction of service
and higher profits,” said Effie
Jones, president of Civic Reform
Association, when she appeared
before Public Utilities Commis-
sion members to present a CRA
brief demanding that the B.C.
Electric application for a boost
in fares be rejected.

The hearings opened Monday
this week in Vancouver Court
House. Last week hearings were
held in Victoria.

Displaying petitions bearing sig-
natures of more than 18,000 Van-
couver citizens calling for “No
fare increase,‘ Mrs. Jones said
“we could secure 100,000 names
if the hearings were delayed for
a reasonable length of time.”

“A 15-cent fare is too high!”
said Mrs. Jones. “There is no
valid reason why Vancouver tran-
sit fares should be 50 percent

higher than any other in Canada.”

Excerpts from the Civic Re-
form Association brief follow:

As we see it, the increase in
fares will have two main conse-
quences: a rise in living costs
and a reduction in service.

Vancouver citizens cannot af-
ford a further rise in utility
prices. We are now paying elec-
tric rates which are double those
of other large Canadian cities.
Even without the proposed in-
crease, our transit fares are al-
ready 25 percent higher than
those of any other large city. In
Toronto, in fact, the people are
complaining bitterly because
their transit tickets have been
increased from 8% to 10 cents!

We have in .mind, also, the
fact that in the past each fare
increase has been followed by a
reduction in service. There is a
vicious spiral in which higher

fares reduce patronage, reduced
patronage leads to reduced ser-
vice, this in. turn to still lower
patronage and demands for fur-
ther fare increases.

Propaganda circulated by the
B.C. Electric regarding fares in
American cities is not worthy of
serious notice. The B.C. Electric
has never made the slightest con-
cession to its employees’ demands
for American wage rates, and
therefore does not incur the
same costs as American transit
systems. :

We believe that this application
expresses nothing other than the
bottomless greed of a mondpolis-
tic company. Three years ago
we warned that the granting of
higher allowable rate of return
would enly lead to, further de-
mands for higher rates and fares.

Continued on back page
See CIVIC

| Bannister’s finis

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r and Landy cracked the four-minute barrier in a thrilling duel.