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Passenger Transport
All the latest news of important developments affecting pub tic-service
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M.T. CO. SET FAIR
THE future of the M.T. Co. (Motor Coaches), Ltd., which was again placed in the balance after the restoration Of certain facilities that improved the prospects of profitable working, now appears to be brighter. When the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners recognized the damage that unfair restrictions had caused to the company, they permitted greater freedom of operation, but Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd., and the East Kent Road Car Co., Ltd., appealed against this decision, maintaining that the Commissioners had been swayed by sympathy. Now the Minister has • dismissed these appeals," also overruling the appeal of the M.T. Co. against the refusal of a London-Canterbury fare stage and the prohibition of thefl picking up of passengers for destinations north-west of Wrothani, on the London-Ramsgate service. Each appellant is to pay a third of the costs.
HOW FAR FOR ltd.?
" IT is a fallacy to assume that fares can be so cheapened that the extra passengers .carried will pay for the reduction in fares," states Mr. R. Stuart Pilcher, Manchester Corporation's transport manager, in a report to his committee. "My view is that a more equitable way to deal with the problem of fares) is to adhere to the present basis of charges, namely, fares based on distance carried, but to give Fpecial consideration to the more distant housing estates." Mr. Pilcher has compiled a summary of the average length of the penny stage of 27 different authorities, including the London Passenger Transport Board and theStalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Board. It is shown that, of the 27 undertakings, Manchester Corporation provides the longest journey for 1d., the bus stages being 1 mile 725 yds. long. Next is Liverpool with stages of 1 mile 483 yds., and, third, Bolton, with 1 mile 334 yds. The shortest stages are those of Cardiff Corporation at 950 yds. Thirteen of the authorities mentioned charge id. for a mile or more.
NEW WALSALL STATION.
LAST week, a new Municipal bus station, with four covered main platforms, was opened at Walsall to provide a terminus for the corporation services to the north of the town, for the Walsall-Birmingham buses of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co„ Ltd., and for longdistance coaches.
TRAFFIC COMMISSIONERS' REPORTS NEXT MONTH.
TT is understood that the Traffic Com
missioners' Fourth Annual Reports will be issued in one volume by the Ministry of Transport, in about a month's time. The publication of the reports and statistics are awaited with interest by many operators.
DONCASTER DOES NOT AGREE.
DONCASTER Corporation has intimatedmated that it is not prepared to agree to the scheme proposed by the Municipal Tramways and Transport Association, to regulate the hours of labour and conditions of service of employees on the operating and maintenance staffs of municipal bus undertakings.
ANOTHER METROPOLITAN INDEPENDENT PASSES.
I NAUGURATED in 1920 by Mr. F. G. Sugg, the Penn Bus Company's undertaking has been taken over by London Transport and the Thames Valley Traction Co., Ltd. The former has acquired seven of the company's 23 vehicles, and the Thames Valley concern the remainder, as well as the private-hire contracts.
NEW E40,000 GARAGE.
NEWCASTLE City Council has placed a contract for the erection of a new bus garage and offices, to cost about £40,000, The garage has become ry necessaowing to the increased use of buses at Newcastle and the intention of the corporation to start a trolleybus service.
FINE S.M.T. SAFETY RECORD.
THE Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., reports that, during the past year, 258,270,766 passengers were carried by the concern and its associated companies, during which period only two passengers were fatally injured. From the inception of the company in 1905 anti! June, 1934, no passenger received fatal injuries.