The L.C.C. Copies the L.G.O.C.
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We are amused to notice that the L.C.C. tramway authorities have not hesitated with exactitude to copy the effective methods adopted by the London motorbus owners. to systematize their route arrangements. The Vanguard Co. was the pioneer in this matter. The County Council now has route numbers attached to all its trams. For some special reason it has decided that odd numbers shall represent services north of the Thames, whilst the even are devoted to those south of the river. What particular virtue there is in this arrangement we are unable to perceive, excepting that further additions to the routes, if such be permitted, can continue to be so distinguished. Not content with the mere copying of the service-number system, the County Council has also issued small route maps which are modelled on the familiar L.G.O.C. pamphlets, even as regards the shape, size and colour of the paper. The tables of services are also identical in arrangement.
That something of more informative nature than that bulky tome, yclept the L.C.C. Tramway Guide, was needed has long been evident, and it is indeed testimony to the traffic-getting genius of the motorbus concerns that the municipal authority has had to copy the latter's methods so unreservedly. Confusion is likely to result by the L.C.C. adoption of service numbers ; it could have been avoided had they employed letters. But it may be the Tramway Committee's desire to diminish the utility of the motorbus companies' methods. The Council's next imitative step must be to purchase motorbuses—a step that will be taken in the quite near future. It is the step which alone offers the certainty of a profit on working.