PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
A THOUGHT FOR THE WINTER.
Problems Associated with the Employment of Coaches During the
Off-season.
N0 useful purpose is served by harking back to the days when the province of the motor coach owner was .a profitable and much-desired estate ; the problem of the present is how successfully to overcome and find a solution of a problem which is general to 98 per cent. of the coach owners of the country—that. of finding winter work.
When a coach °easier issues his summer quotations, if he be a wise man, he is mindful or the fact that his vehicle during the four or five months it is on the road has to earn sufficient to maintain the business for a twelvemonth. If he has had a good summer season there is no difficulty about doing this, but if the reverse condition obtains—well, he is going to have a hard time.
In-ere was a time when, in the winter months, the coaciacum-motor haulage wagon was looked upon as a good lift when the passenger trade was off, and in view of the bad coach season which has been encountered in the industrial North. it seems reasonable to suppose that those smell owners with sufficient means at their command will have their coaches converted to lorries and try their hand at haulage., The prospect of securing a good return is only alluring to those who are not au fait with conditions in the motor haulage industry, which now highly organized and thoroughly capable of dealing, efficiently with every class of traffic that comes along, is not free from the menacing interludes of what reputable hauhers regard as "the cheap jacks." That 28-seater coaches stripped of their bodywork and fitted with a lorry platform are able to fulfil useful haulage
service is not, for one moment doubted, although the policy of effecting such conversion is net viewed with favour by many of those who havevhai much experience of the operation of passenger vehicles. As a matter of fact, one can observe vehicles of this description every day of the week, in places like Man
chester, transporting cotton and other loads to and from the manufacturing districts. But the question that arises is : Is it good policy to work at next to nothing rates to ensure a return that barely covers operating costs, and sometimes not that?
The heavy haulage field is very well served by appropriate types of vehicle, and whilst one can well sympathize with the motor coach proprietor, who bemoans his vehicles lying idle in the garage for six months in the year, the suggestion is ventured that, generally speaking, heavy haulage is best left elone as alternative employment for the passengercarrying machine.
It must net be assumed, however, that there is no passenger work to be bad during the winter months for coaches. There are football clubs and -concert parties that in many cases have an arrangement with a coach owner, whq arranges their transport for the season, A company with eight ox more vehielee might have one or two of them licensed for winter use. Sometimes, such as when the home Rothel teens is playing away, he could fill the whole of his fleet, but for the abominable licensing conditions which require him to license his vehicles for a period embracing a large number of days, when he would have absolutely no work lot-them to do. The position is quite .alesuede Consequently, on economic grounds, the coach owner, uncertain of his whiter trade, ,takes no risks, and prefers to drop out Of the winter trade because of the heavy tax which is levied upon him. FYOM time to time one hears glowing aeconets of saloon passenger-carrying vehicles, en
The Stratford-on-Aeon Mop is a big affair and its success depends to a great extent upon travelling facilities which are provided for the public. Our picture shows Midland Red buses parked after bringing many hundreds of people into Stratford from various Midland centres. suring the same comfortable travel in winter as in summer, but those who are most enthusiastic.in the advocacy of employing this type of machine are very often completely oblivious of the difficulties of the coach owner in the offseason. All coach owners would be glad to have saloon coaches, if they could per suede the public that it was just as pleasant to travel in winter and that the country was just as lovely as in summer. Admittedly, the coaching business is cons centrated in too short a period to enable a coach owner to 'feather his nest," for the winter, but, again, the question will be asked : " How can we prolong it?"
The difficulty seems to narrow itself down to this : If the coach is to be given a fair chance of earning a good living for its owner during the summer months, either the interest of the travelling public+ will have to be stimulated earlier in the year—say, March—and maintained redhot, if possible, until October (there aro some very real and practical difficulties to be circumvented, it is true), or else coaches will have to be built and adapted to fulfil an alternative role during the winter, in a capacity as little in competition as possible with the motor haulage contractor.
In mentioning the latter point one is not unmindful of the fact that the 20-24seater coach is enjoying an increasing vogue , and it seems that if a van body could be fitted the vehicle might be hired as an auxiliary to those big firms of shopkeepers in every big centre of population, who depend upon their winter trade for their best returns. There might be scope for the employment of adapted coaches in this direction, for the transport of light parcels is not likely to inflict any damage on the vehicle. Some coach owners we have interviewed, in looking over the past. season's trade, have commented upon the haphazard organisation behind many users' activities. and have pregnosticated the
ireminense of a startling change. Hitherto, they argue, it has been the "small men" in the coach business who have called the tune to which the huge fleet owners have had to dance. "If those who have been most frantic in their endeavours to get business at any price are able to contitme, the time Will soon
come when the mg owners, for their own preservation, will have to enter the trouble area and end, once and for all, the unsettling conditions such as have been encountered this summer," said one owner.
" To get a proportionate return from our fleet as the single owner we-have to fill our ten coaches to his one; in other words, hook 250 passengers to his 28. If the single owner. and the fleet owner cannot math an abidifig agreement—and the former continues to gain advantages at the expense of the latter at every turn— to my mind the owners with a big share of responsibility (and they have all suf fered) will have to devote themselves to the problem of safeguarding their interests. There is only one way of eking this, and that is by amalgamation.
" The smaller railway companies are not allowed to control the affairs of the bigger concerns. In the coach business the dog is being wagged by the tail. It is my firm conviction," said this owner, !' that, through agreement amongst the coach owners having failed to mature, the future of the motor coach industry is in the hands of the big, established concerns, who, haying weathered the storm for so long, have demonstrated their fitness to carry on."
RINGING DOWN THE CURTAIN IN THE NORTH.
The Newcastle Autumn Race Meeting Brings the Coaching Season to an End in the North Country.
THE NORTH-COUNTRY motor coaching season might be said to have concluded a few days ago, 'for, although some owners have still a few booked tours to fill, the lists of advertised runs arranged by the various concerns catering for the lover of the open road have he:eli completed, and the Newcastle Autumn Race Meeting, held on Tuesday and Wednesday last marked what is to all intents and purposes the official termination of the season. The time is, therefore, especially opportune for reviewing briefly the conditions which have prevailed during what, admittedly, has been a far from successful season all round the country. There can be little doubt that the 1922 :season will, indeed, long live in the minds of owners in practically all the larger provincial centres as quite one of the most unfavourable the industry has ever experienced or is ever likely to experience.
Before passing on to a summary of the conditions which have obtained in the North Country, it might be of interest to allude to the arrangements made by local coach proprieLors for racegoers, and the success which attended their efforts.
The exceedingly efficient method of centralizing and controlling all vehicular traffic engaged in plying from Newcastle to the racecourse at Gaforth Park, some five miles distant, which was inaugurated wish distinct success at the Summer Meeting, was again resorted to, and, as before, gained all-round commendation by reason of the equity established and the smooth working obtained. Whilst, naturally, the traffic did not reach the same enormous figures as in June, when something like 250 motor vehicles plied between Newcastle and the course alone, nevertheless on Tuesday and Wednesday fully 50 or 60 vehicles were engaged in coping wills the traffic, 'and they availed themselves of the waiting stand and park which stretched from opposite the County Hotel (confronting the Central Railway Station) back along Neville Street and Westmorland Road.
As each vehicle in front was loaded up with passengers it moved off, and the vehicles behind moved up, thus equally proportioning the business going. The line of vehicles afforded an imposing demonstration of the number of vehicles available for public pleasure purposes in the district. Once again the coach scored. a triumph by securing a vast proportion of the traffic bound for the course.
Unfortunately, the margin of slICCesS obtained at the race meeting cannot be B33 claimed for other classes of coaching work during the season, and, truth .to, matters have been; even from the opening weeks, distinctly discouraging. Of course, one or two individual owners have met with quite a good response to their carefully arranged programmes, particularly where they depended more or less upon a regular circle of clients, but in the vast majority of instances tho reverse has been the case, and the response to advertised tours has been particularly poor, so much so, that entire cancellation of tours has been necessary in not one instance but in many.
The reasons for the scant patronage are not far to seek. They are two in number. In the first place, trade cle
peession has thrown large numbers of workers in the shipbuilding, engineering and allied industries out of employment and reduced them to destitution, whilst in other cases large "cuts " in wages have also depleted the family. purse. Equally disastrous to the coaching trade has been the inclement weather which
• has prevailed almost continuously throughout the all-too-short coaching season in the North. •
;Even when fairly full bookings have been obtained, there has been no assurance that any degree of financial success was fortisceming, for the drastic reductions made in the scale of fares have left little or no margin when run
ning costs, and other items were debited. As a means of popularizing coaching, the measure might have been attended by some success, but otherwise there can have been little gain.
As an instance of the large " cuts" made, it might be mentioned that fares in some casestowards theend of the season dropped as much as 20 per cent. below those ruling at the start, and about 40. per. cent. below those charged in the previous year. Compared with , the ordinary third-class return railway fares, some coach fares charged -showed reductions bordering on 50 per cent. Some idea of the almost general drop in fares can be gathered from the accompanying table, covering the period between the start of the 1921 season and the end of the current one, together with the railroad charges :
To turn to the trend of public requirement during the season, many local proprietors have noticed a distinct tendency amongst their regular patrons to favour the longer-distance tour, within a radius of,say, 100 to 150 miles, which can be
covered in a single day. In former seasons they have thoroughly exploited the ground nearer home, and are now seeking for pastures new. This point should be remembered in preparing 192i programmes. The smaller .coach, shod with pneumatics, is fast advancing in favour by the fact that it permits of a greater range of. operations, but nevertheless, the large capacity coach will probably live long in the North.