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PASSENGER TRANSPOR1 ROFITS RISE BY £3m.

22nd January 1960
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Page 50, 22nd January 1960 — PASSENGER TRANSPOR1 ROFITS RISE BY £3m.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Net Receipts Rise to Over £16m. :All Types of Service Benefit :" Wages Up Nearly .f5m. THE accounts of the coach and bus sectors of the industry indicate that the year 1958-59 was distinctly brighter than its immediate precedessor. "Statistics of Public Road Passenger Transport in Great Britain, 1958-59 " (StatiOnery Office, Is. 3d.) show art increase in net receipts for operators of more than 24 vehicles (but exeluding London Transport) of approximately £3.75m. They rose from £12.374m.. to .fl 6.127m.

B.R.S. and Rail " Unsuitable "

'THE facilities of British Road Services i and British Railways were described as being unsuitable for the carriage of the products of Field, Sons and Co., Ltd., Bradford, printers, at Leeds, last week, Major F. S. Eastwood, Yorkshire Licensing Authority, was hearing the resumed application of Peel Transport,. Ltd., Halifax (The Commercial Motor, November 27, 1959) for an A licence for three vans and a lorry to be acquired,

Mr. M. J. Midgley, transport manager of Field's, stated that they had received complaints from customers as a result of sending goods by B.R.S. and the railways. The rates, quoted by them, at the time of concluding an agreement with Peel were not competitive with those of independent road hauliers, he added.

An overnight service to London and the Midlands could be given, said Mr. L. Ward, assistant to the Leeds goods superintendent of the railways. He did not consider a period of six days as. unreasonable for the delivery of a small parcel, sent by rail to Hayes, Middx. There was a week-end intervening, he said.

If B.R.S. and the railways were now given a chance to quote for the carriage of all Field's work, he had no doubt that they could match the rates for goods now being carried by Peel, claimed Mr. Ward, He admitted . that Peel's rates were economic.

Major Eastwood announced that an A licence for two vehicles would be granted, subject to the surrender of the contract-A licences in respect of two vehicles at present employed by Field.

MORE GOVERNMENT POWER? 'THE central Government must have I more powers for traffic control, observed Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, on his return from the U.S.A. on Sunday. He has been gaining ideas which he might introduce in Britain.

Semi-trailer for Road . or Rail

PAA SEMI-TRAILER which • can travel on rail or road is. being tested by British Railways at the Nuneaton test track of the Motor Industry Research

Association, where it will he joined by • another model soon.

Known as the Roadrailer, the 11-ton semi-trailer is based upon a vehicle designed by the American Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and was produced by B.R. and the Pressed Steel Co., Ltd., Cowley, Oxford, At the rear, instead of a normal roadwheel assembly. is a device which retracts the road wheels and lets down a pair of rail wheels by a mechanism similar to an aircraft undercarriage. At the frOnt there is a special coupling which fits into the trailing end of another similar semitrailer.

When the vehicle is operated on the road the road wheels are let down and the vehicle is hitched to a tractor in the normal manner. In this form it will collect its goods from the consignor and take them to an exchange point by the side of a railway line. Here the rail wheels are let down and the semi-trailer is coupled to others to form a train.

This train is then trunked to another exchange point close to the destination, where the road wheels are again Jet down and the semi-trailer is moved to its destination.

The revenue account, as in previous years, compares figures for the current year with those of 1957-58, and shows the results of the local-authority undertakings side by side with those of other operators. Receipts in 1958-59 rose to 1206.535m. (£197.415m. in 1957-58), of which the local authorities' share amounted to 174.222m. All types of service—stage, express, excursions and tours and contract—showed an increase. It is, perhaps, significant that the municipalities increased their earnings from contract hire from 1591,000 to 1629,000.

On the expenditure side of the account, comparable increases are to be found. Costs fpr all the operators rose from 1185.146m. to 1190.551m. The wages bill alone increased from about 177m. to 181.8m. On the other hand,. the fuel account was cut from £29,55m. to .127m.• Provision made for depreciation of vehicles rosc slightly from £10.7m. to 1 1m.

Ifighest Figure

Figures . for the London Transport Executive are not presented in quite the same manner. Their receipts per passenger journey for 1958 are shown as

the .highest figure recorded in recent years. Receipts per vehicle-mile, however, show a slight drop, from 37.37d. in 1957 to 36.52d. in the year under review. As would be expected, the figures for expenditure per vehiclemile also show a rise, from 35.42d. to 37.56d. .Receipts per passenger-mile amounted to 2.08d., a fractional increaseover the previous year's figure.

London Transport figures for passenger-miles show a marked drop in 1958, from 7,175m. to 5,597m. Central buses suffered a cut from 4,798m. miles to 3,277M. miles. country buses and coaches from 1,132m. to 914m. miles and trolleybuses from 1,245m. to 956m. mites.

Operations in the rest of the country do not tell quite the same story. The total passenger journeys show a drop from 9,719.4m. to 9,668.4m., but the receipts have gone up from £194.6rn. to .203.6m. Vehicle-miles have risen to

1,639.2m, (1,592.8m.). Receipts per passenger journey have climbed to 5.05d. (4.81d.) and per vehicle-mile from 29.32d. to 29.81d.

It is indicative of the confidence that operators have in the indtistry that the capital invested euntirMes to mount. The assets *of operators of more than 24 vehicles, including local authorities, now amount to 1242.2rn. (1234.5m.), and the values of vehicles, garages, plant and

goodwill all show increases. The goodwill of the "other operators," for example, has been marked up from £6.255m. to £8m.

During 1958-59, 248 fewer vehicles operated than in the year before (47,811), and one more operator in the over 24-vehicle" class brought the total to 241. Local authorities' fleets increased from 15,735 to 15,787, but other operators made a cut from 32,076 to 31,776.

A similar decreasing trend is revealed by the summary of vehicles of all operators at December 31, 1958. The total figure is reduced from 79,053 a year earlier to 77,923. That this is a tendency shared by the whole industry is shown by individual figures for the private operators, the British Transport Commission and London Transport. The tram continues to be an unconscionable time a-dying: there were 2,907 in 1952 and there remained 1,097 at the close of 1958.

The publication shows the extent to which the nationalized undertakings shared the available business. The Stateowned companies made 9,450m. passenger journeys, and the rest 9,115m. The British Transport ,Commission's provincial and Scottish undertakings earned f.217.1m. in passenger receipts, against £189.2m. for other companies, and covered 1,742m. miles, compared with 1,477m. miles.

The index of stage-service fares rose fractionally during the year. If 1953 is taken as 100, the summer of 1959 showed an increase to approximately 130. The local-authority figure was slightly above average at 132, and London Transport somewhat below at 127.

Single-deckers, both petroland oilengined, show a slight drop in numbers. Two single-deckers are registered to carry between 49 and 56 passengers, but the majority (17,272) are in the 40-seat bracket.

Excluding London Transport, there are 1,828 trolleybuses in operation. They show a somewhat increased earning capacity of 3.09d. per passenger journey and 38.29d. per vehicle-mile. They made 785m. passenger journeys and covered 63.4m. vehicle-miles. The 1,097 trams, on the other hand, gave receipts of 3.63d. per passenger journey and 40.73d. per vehicle-mile.

Grant Delayed Until March as Penalty

TnE addition of a vehicle of 2 tons I to the licence of Robertson Buckley and Co., Ltd., Birmingham, was delayed until March 1 by Mr. R. Hall, West Midland Licensing Authority, on Tuesday because the company had operated a vehicle without a licence from October 12 to November 21 last year.

Mr. B. Blair, transport manager, said that last June the company were granted an increase of a ton in unladen weight, but the weight of a vehicle subsequently purchased was found to exceed the revised figure. They were in an awkward position during the Christmas rush, as satisfactory hiring was impossible, and used the vehicle without authority rather than lose customers.

Stating that he had been a manager for 25 years, Mr. Blair told Mr. Hall that he did not know that a short-term licence could .have been applied for. Mr. Hall remarked that he could not accept that an experienced company with world-wide connections were unaware that their difficulties could be cured by a short-term licence.

The company also successfully applied for a B licence for two vehicles to deliver goods from storage within 60 miles.

DOUBLE-DECK BUS CAPACITY NOT SETTLED

LAST week's meeting of the National LAST

Industrial Council for the road Industrial Council for the road passenger transport industry failed to reach any final conclusion on the questions of the total number of passengers and standing passengers to be allowed on double-deck buses.

The sub-committee set up to consider the matter recommended that total capacity should not exceed 72 persons, which, if eight standing passengers were allowed, would reduce double-decker capacity to 64.

As the questions were not concluded last week, the sub-committee were instructed to complete their terms of reference in time for the next full meeting of the council on February 12. The subcommittee meet again to tackle this task on February 11, SUSPENSION FOR OSWALD

THE .suspension during March of two vehicles, operated by Oswald Transport, Ltd., Trabhoch, Mauchline, Ayrshire, from Wigan, was ordered by Mr. F. Williamson, North Western Licensing Authority, on Monday.

This follows the suspension of two vehicles of the Oswald fleet, based at Talke, Staffs, by Mr. W. P. James, West Midland Licensing Authority (The Commercial Motor, January 8) after a protracted case involving allegations of false declarations subsequent to a change of base, without• permission.

NEW FACTORIES FOR B.M.C.

AFACTORY to build commercial vehicles and cars is to be erected in Wales by the British Motor Corporation, Ltd. A new plant will be established in Scotland to produce tractors.


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