CHEAPER TAXIS ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sim,—I am not a motorist, but the announcement of the fact that, thanks to the " big three " petrol companies, the price of petrol has been kept down at its present low level for more than a year, has only deepened a mystery which has long troubled me—the price of taxi fares. Every Londoner will know, and every visitor to London has learned to his cost, that taxi fares were advanced by fifty per cent. (from 8d. to ls. for the mere privilege of stepping inside !) in order to compensate for the rise in the cost of petrol during the War. Now petrol has fallen by one hundred per cent. or more since that date—and is, in fact, cheaper than it was before the War—yet taxi fares remain sky high.
This is the worst scandal, in my opinion, to be found in London, and I understand that a similar phenomenon May be observed in all British cities where taxis ply for hire. In some European capitals, where petrol is dearer than it is with us, taxi fares are much lower. What is the good of cheaper petrol if we are not to have cheaper taxis ?—I am, Sir, &c., St. George's Square, S.W. 1.
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