The Irish Motoring Society, of Dublin, has started a new
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service, with a 12-seated car, between O'Connell Bridge and the Lucan Spa Hotel.
Two applications will come before the Watch Committee of the Cardiff Corporation, in November, for licenses to run motor omnibuses in that city.
We regret having occasion to hold over our promised further reference to Mr. Brakenridge's proposals about the drawing up of an approved list of suit. able books for use in mess-rooms.
Further to our, references of last week to I he Alliance Motor Bus Cmnpany's imbroglio, the company has now paid 1:3o into Court, and given an undertaking not to enforce payment of the calls in the meantime. Counsel for the Company also stated that there was a complete answer to the allegations of the claimants.
Apropos the motorbus controversy in the Manchester district, we note that the Stretford Urban District Council has received a petition, signed by over 1,000 persons residing in the neighbourhoods affected, praying it to confirm the licenses temporarily granted for the motorbuses now running between Stretford and Withington.
"The Bystander," of the 3rd instant, contains a full-page illustration which it entitles " A pathetic scene in Piccadilly." This consists of horsed omnibuses being hustled by motorbuses, and the idea has evidently been copied from our illustration entitled " Piccadilly Circus by day," which appeared in No. 64 of "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Wandsworth Borough Council is to ask the L.C.C. to include in its next General Purposes Bill provisions making motor and horsed omnibus companies responsible for the acts of their setvants in cases of damage to lamp columns, street standards, etc. We think the former should be set further back in the pavements, and that the latter should be disallowed.
Our Paris correspondent advises us that the Eugene Brillio Automobile Company, whose motorbuses are manufactured in the world-famous works of Schneider and Company, at Le Creusot, has moved its offices to 6o Boulevard Pereire (Place Wagram).
The Accrington Town Council has before it a scheme for the construction of overhead tramways, at an estimated cost of £84,100, and it is reported that opposition to its adoption will be offered by a number of local gentlemen who believe that motor omnibuses are more suited for the district's requirements.
We are authorised by the solicitors to the London General Omnibus Company, Limited, and by the chairman of Thomas Tilling, Limited, to deny the statements published in the ' Tribune " of the 4th instant, to the effect that these companies had approached the London Motor Omnibus Company, Limited, with a view to the formation of a .4:4,000,000 company.
Amongst the canards of the day, we heard, some ten days ago, of a rumour that the City of London Corporation intended to prohibit the passage of motorbuses through any part of its area, and that most drastic regulations were under consideration for early issue. It is, therefore, satisfactory to be able to quote from a letter addressed to us by Captain W. J. Nott-Bower, the Chief Commissioner of Police for the. City of London, as follows : " I cannot imagine how such a rumour as that to which you refer can have got about. So far as I am aware, no such idea as that of endeavouring to prohibit the passage of motorbuses through the City has ever been entertained by anyone, nor do I know that any regulations of a special or drastic nature for the City are under contemplation." This assurance will, we feel sure, be received with relish by the several managing directors who rang us up on the subject in a state of perturbation.
Captain II. FL P. Deasy has resigned his position as chairman and director of the London Power Omnibus Company, Limited, owing to the de, mands on his time due to the increasing business of the Deasy Motorcar Manufacturing Company, Limited, in which he is so largely interested.
A driver of a " Vanguard " omnibus was summoned before Mr. Plowden, at the West London Police Court, on the 4th instant, for driving to the common danger. Evidence was adduced to show that the man, Alfred Parsons, tried to pass a coal cart on its near side, but that he did not get through. The effort. in certain quarters, to turn this report into a scandal as to the general incompetence of I .ond on 's motorbus drivers, would be amusing, if there were no risk of such " scare paragraphs being accepted . by credulous persons. Prominence is seldom given to the really scandalous manner in which heavy horse-drawn traffic monopolises the centre of the highway.
"Vanguard" Accounts.
We regret that, at the moment of going to prvss, notwithstanding our expectation that the first annual report and balance-sheet of the London Motor Omnibus Company, Limited, would be in our possession, the documents have not come to hand. We are, therefore, unable to deal with the receipts or costs, and our references cannot appear until next week. All parties will, we are satisfied, hope that ample provision has been made for depreciation, and that the results of the year's working will prove as good as the estimates contained in the prospectus, because the immediate future of motor omnibus development in London will, to a not inconsiderable extent, turn upon the revenue and expenditure account, and their analyses. The directors and staff have, unquestionably, passed through a trying period, whilst the Handcross disaster is not yet settled.
The Society of Motor Omnibus Engineers will open its second wintei. session on Monday the 29th instant.
The Honorary President of the Society, the Right Hon. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, will preside, and an interesting paper will be presented by Mr. Douglas Mackenzie, who intends to deal with certain important problems arising out of motor-omnibus traffic in the Metropolis.
Dr. II. S. Iele-Shaw, F. M.Inst.C.E., has consented to read the second paper of the session, on November 26th, when he will deal with " The theory and practice of power transmission for public-service vehicles." It is expected that the full programme for the Society's winter meetings will be issued next week.
A recent interesting completed patent is one granted to Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Limited, of Elswick Works, Newcastleon-Tyne (No. ti,338 of May 3oth). This relates to means for carrying the motor crank case and change-speed gear case fixed rigidly together. The upper part of the crank case, which carries the motor cylinders and the bearings for the crankshaft, has bolted to it metal side plates, and the other ends of those plates are bolted to the lower part of the change-speed gear casing.
Many complaintsare being heard front owners of all classes of vehicles which have to use the part of the Kingsland Road, N., at present given over to the tender mercies of the contractor who is laying the L.C.C. new tramway system. Not content merely with excavating fully one half of the road crust, the available strip of road is still further curtailed by the stacking of piles of new rails at the side of the curb, and these have, in one or two instances, projected as much as two feet. This dangerous practice is surely unnecessary, and it is to be hoped that this paragraph will be seen by those in authority, and they will take action.
An extraordinary statement was published in a recent issue of the " Yorkshire Evening Post," as to the money expended upon two motor omnibuses in Leeds, during the months of January to March last. It is well known that municipal authorities are sometimes made the targets of over-zealous elective auditors, who are notoriously against everything, except their own perverted ideas of reformation. In the case under review, we do not hesitate to say that the assertions as to the earnings are incorrect, whilst we are positively aware that the assumption that the omnibuses were running from January to the end of March is absolutely fallacious. One of the vehicles was not working at all, until nearly the end of March. We challenge the gentleman who made these statements, which include, inter alia, a report that the takings had only averaged 45. I d. per day, and that the operating costs, exclusive of petroleum spirit, were close upon £3Ro, to prove his wild declarations under these heads.
The sensational accounts of the slight accident which befel a " Pilot "motor bus at Stamford Hill have been exag gerated to such an extent by local papers that we consider it our duty to deny certain of the statements. One of our representatives has been officially informed by the managing director of the Motor Bus Company, Limited, that the brakes on the vehicle, a MilnesDaimler, did not in any way fail. The spot where the vehicle had to be turned was just at the top of a hill, and, in turning the vehicle, it over-ran the crest and started to run backwards ; this so disconcerted the driver that he
lost his head. No part of the mechanism of the bus was deranged, and it was in perfect order. The driver sustained a fractured wrist, not, as one local paper had it, " by being shot from his box into the road,.' but by a" backfire " whilst starting up the engine.
The reports, originally circulated by the " Evening News" and the "Tribune," to the effect that an amalgamation between four of the recently-formed London motor omnibus companies is imminent, have caused various. denials to issue from the interested parties. The four companies are : The London Motor Omnibus Company, Limited, with an authorised capital cf £300,000, and operating the "Vanguard " services; the London and District Motor Bus Company, Limited, with an authorised capital of L403,000 and operating the "Arrow " services; the London and Provincial Motor Omnibus and Traction Company, Limited, with an authorised capital of 4300,000, and also operating, as regards London, in conjunction with the " Arrow " services; and the Motor Bus Company, Limited, with an authorised capital of 4;3oo,000, operating°::-the " Pilot" services. The subscribed capital of the four companies is ;,C670,000, and we refer to one aspect of the proposals editorially. It should be noted that we do not credit the directors of the " Vanguard " Company with official activity in the matter, as the " feelers " have been thrown out, semi-officially, by an individual, thought prominent, member of that board.
The Executive Committee of the Hove Ratepayers' Alliance has asked that " the regulations recently approved by the Chief Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis of London, in reference to motor omnibuses, etc., etc.," should be adopted in Hove. Whilst reiterating the fact that the draft regulations will not be out until at least half-way through November, we think it is entirely a case of begging the question to assume that a watering place, where the road traffic is relatively small, requires the same drastic regulations as may be found necessary for the Metropolis.
A most amazing error has crept into an article that has been contributed to " The Railway News," and it is regrettable that the most extravagant inferenoes have been drawn from the false assumption. This is nothing less than an alleged quotation from the last halfyearly report of the London Road Car Company, in which the disclosed total of expenditure upon "Car and motor repairs and renewals, including salaries, 430,843 2s. id." is erroneously treated as being exclusively in respect of 94 motor omnibuses. This is referred to as "an unpleasant revelation." Were it true, we should heartily concur. The contributor of the illuminating article in question goes on to remark : " This figure works out at an average of .327 per car per year, or over 40 per cent. of their first cost. The experience of the Road Car Company is borne out by that of other companies." The correct repair figures for the motorbuses, so far as they can be gathered from the published accounts, amounted to considerably less than E,20,000, and when one deducts from this aggregate sum the heavy expenditure on rubber tires, amounting, approximately, to i.75d. per mile, the absurdity of the statements quoted above will be obvious. They are, we regret to say, in keeping with much of the gratuitous criticism bestowed upon public service vehicles by self-appointed authorities. Such inaccuracies are exceedingly harmful, although obviously foolish to the few who know the facts.