Jack Committee to Tour Britain
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obtain first-hand information on the rural bus situation, members of the Jack Committee are to visit various parts of England, Wales and Scotland. They ivill talk to country people about their bus problems.
The committee have chosen five areas to give a cross-section of varying rural districts. They will be the north-east. the Fens, south-west England, mid-Wales and Scotland. The visits will take place in April, May and June.
It is hoped to make arrangements for sub-committees to visit Sweden—to see how similar problems are being tackled there—and Switzerland to obtain information on the . operation of the postal bus system..
A QUESTION OF SIZE
WHAT is the best size for a transport undertaking? Mr. Gilbert S. Ponsonby sought to answer this question in a paper he read to the Royal Society of Arts yesterday. His subject was the structure of the British transport system.
He considered that only large concerns could operate successfully when traffic was heavy. The size of an organization had to be tailored to the extent of its traffic if it were to be operated economically.
A large. or monopolistic undertaking could subsidize nnremunerative services with earnings from profitable traffics. The assumption that this was a desirable state of affairs was a strong influence towards unification in the industry.
The 1953 Act, however, reversed this trend and today more than 500,000 operators employed 1.3m. vehicles.
NEW PERKINS DIESEL
AN improved, more powerful fourcylinder car diesel engine produced by Perkins, of Peterborough, will make its world debut at the British Exhibition at New York in June.
Named the Perkins P4/203, it develops 62 bhp. at 3,000 r.p.m.-3 b.h.p. more than the P4 engine at present operating in many U.S. taxicabs—and has a slightly larger bore.