COMPLETE SUCCESS OF PARIS SUBURBAN SERVICES
Page 61
Page 62
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Rumours of a Great Extension of the New Citroen Organization, ()UR Paris representative reports that the new long-distance Citroen coach services are positively booming. The instantaneous popularity of the scheme has surprised even the organizer, and additional coaches are being put into service as rapidly as possible. On most of the routes 15-minute services are being ran.
Our representative recently made ex perimental trips on the routes to Mantes and to Senlis, and he found the services to be splendidly conducted. Country people already make use of the coaches to a remarkable extent. The Citran organization has been, indeed, fortunate in obtaining permission to use the Magnificent Place de in Concorde as its terminal point. There is room and to spare for operating an almost indefinite number of coach services, without any interference with ordinary traffic The terminus, moreover, is almost exactly in the centre of Paris. Pares charged on the Citron coach lines are below those for second-class railway travel A 10-franc coach trip, for instance, represents a second-class railway journey of 12f. 50c. or 13f. The coach fares are, however, considerably higher than third-class railway rates, but the latter are too low to be profitable.
The existing Citroen coach routes, a map of which was published in the issue of The Commercial Motor dated Seri
tember 9, are to be extended deeper into the country, and a start has already been made with the Rambouillet service, which now runs on to Chartres (60 miles from Paris).
Our Paris representative hears, on excellent authority, that the Citroen organization now envisages a huge extension of its successful enterprise with provincial services linking up towns throughout the whole of France.
In these circumstances negotiations with the great railway concerns will be rather difficult. The road-versus-rail situation in France is entirely different from that existing in England. Apart from those concerns which are actually Government property, all French railways are State-aided.
So far, the railways have suffered comparatively little from road competition, but a really powerful road-traffic push, such as that hinted at, might affect the railways most seriously.