Hey blondie!
Not needed, congregation max will be 150 where possible, and 3 or more congregations in each KH. Makes sense, even with extra wear, theoretically the donations will be more consolidated. Have to drive farther, too bad, many bethelites drive 30 to 50 miles to their congregations near Wallkill and Patterson.
Hmmmm, a bit of strawman reasoning there I think....
Yes, traditionally two congregations using a Kingdom Hall was thought of as 'ideal' use - you had the Tuesday / Thursday evening meetings then on Sunday you had a morning and an afternoon, with a Sunday rotation every couple of years and now WT wants more congregations using each KH.
But comparing the US to the UK??... there are THREE very big differences:
Firstly, in real terms, there are 43% LESS JWs in Britain than the US when compared to population - this means that a US town of 40,000 will have a congregation of 150, but in Britain the congregation would only have 87 publishers.
Secondly, as a whole, the UK is 800% more densely populated than the US - even the whole of England EXCLUDING London, is more densely populated than the WHOLE of the US (including New York State, but excluding New Jersey and Rhode Island) - but this means that people in the UK are MUCH LESS willing to travel.
Thirdly, in the UK gas costs 245% MORE than in the US (East Coast) - so ANY 'extra' car travel is much more expensive
JW numbers from Yearbook:
US publisher ratio is 1-in-261
Britain publisher ratio is 1-in-457
Population density:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_population_density
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc134_c/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_districts_by_population_density
Gas prices:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21238363
