Operating Aspects of Passenger Transport
Page 31
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PROVINCIAL BUS MEN TO CARRY ON IN RAIDS •
AN agreement which covers some 90,000 bus personnel employed by private companies in the provinces, by which these men will carry on with their work during air-raid alerts, has been announced by the representatives of the employers and the trade unions. They will stop only when there are definite indications that an actual attack in the vicinity is likely to take place. It is expected that this example will be followed soon by the 80,000 bus employees of the municipalities.
BUSES SAFER THAN TRAMS IN AIR RAIDS
THERE has been an agitation in • 1 Datwen in favour of discontinuing -trams in favour of buses during the -black-out period, as an additional safeguard. •• Mr.Wilkes, the transport • manager, has expressed his hearty concurrence-, but he points out that the shortage of fuel is a difficulty. He states, however, that if it be considered advisable that the whole service should he suspended for the duration of a warning, this will be done, Hitherto, it has been the practice for trams to stop when the sirens sound until the all-clear.
BUS PROPRIETORS "FINANCIALLY EMBARRASSED"
A T Blackwood Police Court, Mr. Kenneth Pickett, of Maesycymmer, and Mr. John Mullen, of Pengam, were charged with receiving Road Fund licences (knowing them to have been stolen), with altering the licences, with fraudulently using licences issued for certain vehicles on others, and for using vehicles without licences. The latter was also charged with making a false declaration for obtaining a licence. The prosecution alleged that the men used licences stolen from private -cars for use on two of their buses. The•licences had been altered to suit the
requirements of the buses. Mr. Mullen took out a licence the day following the police discovery, but in doing so he
said that the bus had not been in use during July, which meant a loss of 15 to the revenue.
– For the defence it was said that at licensing time both men were short of cash, and they had taken a cheaper way out of their difficulties. The chairman took all the charges into account, and each was sentenced to three months imprisonment.
BUS AS REST ROOM AFTER AIR RAIDS
A SERVICE for people left homeless /–t by air raids has been brought into
• operation at Chesterfield, where a converted bus will, following a raid, tour the town as an office, rest room and • information bureau, provision being also made for the treatment of persons „suffering from shock.
SUNDERLAND ABANDONS UNIVERSAL RETURN -FARE SUNDERLAND Town Council has approved .a recommendation of the transport committee to withdraw the 2d. universal return fare on buses and trams, which has been in operation daily until 9 a.m.,. The transport committee's recommendation followed consideration of the annual report of the transport manager, Mr. C. A. Hopkins, which stated that steps should be taken to increase the undertaking's revenue, as was mentioned in our issue dated September 6. It is understood that the council's decision will add 210,000 per annum to the revenue.
ANTI-BLAST NETTING FOR LONDON BUSES
To guard against the possibility of broken glass in air raids, anti-blast adhesive netting is now being fixed to the windows of a number of buses and -olleybuses operated by London Transport. It is an experiment and it if not intended, for the moment, to equip all the Board's vehicles. Demonstrations have proved that the netting is effective, and the extent to which the idea is adopted depends on how it stands up to wear and tear, as well as how it is regarded by passengers.
MA,GISTRATES PRESS FOR BUS STATIONS
THE Regional Transport Commis! sioner has invited the magistrates of Stirling to meet him to discuss the building of the proposed bus station' at Goosecroft, Stirling, by W. Alexander and Sons, Ltd.
Following aii intimation from the Commissioner that he was not prepared
• to recommend the granting of a priority certificate to enable the release of steel for the construction of the station, the magistrates of the town decided to , make strong representations.. on the subject. They asked that necessary materials should be released to enable the company to proceed immediately with the work on the ground that the station was a pressing necessity for the relief of congestion in the streets:
The :magistrates .added • that They were perturbed by the immense volume of bus • traffic congesting the main . streets and by .the attendant .datigers•of the approaching black-out period. , FARES CONCESSIONS FOR HOME GUARD
IVIEMBERS of the Home Guard in .
• 1Y1uniform will receive the same concessions on municipal buses and trams in Glasgow as serving -soldiers: "The transport 'committee has unanimously agreed -that Home Guards in uniform going to and from duty should be allowed to travel by all methods of municipal transport for a maximum
fare of id. The concession will' not apply to Home Guards wearing armlets.
CANTEEN BUSES FOR A.R.P. WORKERS
LEEDS Transport Department has prepared a scheme for the &Inver
• -sion of two obsolete single-deck buses . owned by the department into mobile canteens, to serve the city's civil-defence workers when they are on airraid duties. The idea is to use the vehicles for the transport of food in heat-insulated containers, from the cookery depot at one of the city's public institutions—to those on civil defence...