Staircase Gives Room Right to Accept for Conductor Lowest Tender
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THE front staircase of a type of double-decker being built by Massey Bros, (Pemberton), Ltd., Wigan, allows space behind the driver's compartment where the conductor may stand without obstructing the driver's view of the entrance or the flow of passengers.
Three buses of this kind are being based on Leyland Titan chassis for Morecambe and Heysham Transport Department, and two for Baxter's Bus Services, Ltd., Airdrie. The municipal vehicles will be 64-seaters and the company's 56-seaters.
The staircase has a Y formation, with two branches leading to the upper deck. It rises straight to the off side of the upper deck to about 2 ft. from that level, where the left fork takes passengers to the front row of seats, and the right fork to the gangway.aiong the sides of the other seats.
The front entrance is 3 ft. 6 in. wide and is enclosed by a fast-action sliding door operated by Peters air-pressure equipment under the control of the driver. There is a window in the bottom of the door through which the driver can see the kerb. Passengers climb two shallow steps to the lower deck.
Another unusual feature is the provision of four Perspex peach panels in the roof. Each measures 4 ft. by 2 ft.
PLAN "TOO AMBITIOUS"
BECAUSE Easington, Durham, was not a terminal point, the proposal to , build a bus station there was too ambitious. The Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., and United Automobile Services, Ltd., stated this when they informed Easington Rural District Council that they would not contribute towards the cost of the station.
BUS BODIES TO GO?
A REQUEST is to be made to Glasgow Corporation to rescind an earlier decision to build 50 bus bodies in the corporation's works each year. alr. Gordon Reid will propose that all body requirements should be met by outside companies in future. AFTER being told that Messrs. Fox's, Wellington, cloth manufacturers, spent £4,500 a year on assisted travel services for their employees, Mr. S. W. Nelson, chairman of the Western Traffic Commissioners, declared last week that employers who provided transport for workpeople had a right to accept the lowest tender.
The Commissioners were hearing applications from Mr. E. A. Beardon. Tiverton, and Mr. P. J. Berry and Mr. J. G. Hemmings, Bradford-on-Tone, Taunton, •to run separate services for workers from Culmstock, Burlescombe and Bishop's Lydiard to Wellington.
They were opposed by three operators, Mr. R. C. Hatton, Bowerman Tours, Ltd., and Mr. P. P. F. Sharland, who had run the services until the end of last year. Mr. Sharland said that he had operated only since September, 1959, before losing his contract Mr. Rupert Yates, for Fox, stated that eight different bus companies were employed for the work, They had found no fault with previous services, but it was economic to ask for tenders each year. Contracts had no specified periods, he added.
Recurring competition would affect the • public in the long run, said Mr. Sharland, who added that he objected on principle.
Granting all three applications, Mr. Nelson observed that there should be a free market in these matters. Competition served to keep operators on their toes. The company should give their contracts, wherever possible, to people running the rural services, he added.
HARRINGTON BID: NO PROGRESS
FURTHER negotiations have taken place since The Commercial Motor announced on January 1 that an unnamed source had made a bid for the whole of the ordinary capital of Thomas Harrington, Ltd. No positive development has, however, occurred and the directors of Harrington's are unable to say whether the negotiations will be successful or when they will he completed.