Operating Aspects of
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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
GLASGOW'S TRAM EXTENSION
CRITICIZED PRIVATE CAR USED AS EXPRESS THAT road motor vehicles were better suited to meet the case, was the statement made at a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry which, after a two-days' sitting at Glasgow, approved_ the section of the Glasgow Corporation Provisional Order which gives the corporation power to construct a
ljmile tramway extension from Knightswood Cross to Drumchapel. The line has to be completed by 1943.
Addressing the Commissioners, Mr. John Cameron, who appeared for the sole objector, the London and NorthEastern Railway Co., dealt with the relative merits of tram and bus traffic. He had, he said, no desire to take part in this fierce controversy. One realized that the civic pride of Glasgow takes great credit—and rightly so—for its extensive tramway service, a service which, for many years, has ably provided for the public in Glasgow, and, surprisingly enough perhaps, yields a substantial and growing revenue.
However, continued Mr. Cameron, one could not leave out of consideration the capital cost involved in extending'a tramway system even for a short distance. In this case, it was anticipated that the capital cost of works and equipment would be in the region of £46,000. That would provide merely a rigid form of transport, and bus services, which he felt were, from their more flexible character, more suitable for such a case, had not this heavy initial capital cost.
Mr. Cameron further advanced that it was right -that the transport should he undertaken by road-service vehicles which came under the jurisdiction of the Traffic Commissioners, who took steps to co-ordinate transport and to safeguard the rights of existing undertakings.
BIGGER BUSES IN DARWEN.
ALL the 26-seater buses on Darwen Corporation routes, with the exception of those on the Tockholes service, were superseded by 32-seater vehicles on Tuesday last, and the time-tables have been adjusted to permit the economical running of the larger buses. The transport department hopes that " the new services will be given a chance of establishing themselves before any hasty criticism is levelled against them."
PRESTON'S RECEIPTS UP BY £4,718. •
THE annual report of the borough treasurer of Preston reveals that the receipts of the transport undertaking were up by £4,718 on -the previous year, accompanied by an extra bus mileage of 40,000. Passengers carried rose by nearly 1,750,000; working expenses absorbed £4,388 more than during the previous year's working.
DWINDLING PROFITS IN TODMOR DEN.
THAT the profits on the transport undertaking were " dwindling seriously," was a warning given to Todmorden Town Council by Alderman J. H. Whitaker, J.P., last week. It could not continue, indefinitely, to live beyond its income, he said. Since 1932 it had handed over £56,268 for rate relief.
Due, mainly, to increased costs, the gross profit for the past financial year was £6,916, as against £9,999 in 1932. He hoped, he continued, to avoid in £40 creased fares. The net profit available for rate relief was only £1,703, equal to a rate of 4d. in the L.
NEW BUS STATION IN BLACKPOOL.
rilA NEW parking centre and bus station has just been completed in Talbot Road, Blackpool. It covers an area of over 4,400 sq.. yds. and provides accommodation for over 1,000 cars.
BOLTON'S NEW TRANSPORT MANAGER GETS BUSY.
THE newly appointed transport manager to Bolton Corporation, Mr. A. A. Jackson, who succeeded the late Mr. C. Ormerod, met the members of his transport committee as their chief
official, on July 27. Appointed in April, St. Helens Corporation could not release him until a few days ago. Mr. Jackson's first task is to prepare a report on the revision of tram and bus fares—an issue delayed by the deaths of two successive transport managers.
DOUBLE-DECKERS BENEFIT DUBLIN.
DECAUSE of the increasing .popularity of the bus services in Dublin, the Dublin United Tramways Co., Ltd., has decided to place a further 35 double-deckers in service. An order for the machines has been placed with Leyland Motors, Ltd., and they will be similar to the 200 oil-engined doubledeckers previously supplied by this maker to the company. Last year, which was the first time double-deckers were operated in the city, both mileages and receipts showed a large increase.
nVER 3,000 employees at the Longk."bridge. Birmingham, works of the Austin Motor Co., Ltd., who formerly travelled to work by coach, now travel by private car, declared Mr. G. K. Mynett, solicitor for the West Midland Area Traffic Commissioners, at Halesowen Police Court, last week.
Mr. Mynett was prosecuting in a case in which a butcher was fined a total of 50s., with costs, for using a private car as an express carriage without a licence, and fir using and driving the vehicle without a public-service vehicle licence.
Mr. Mynett said that the case involved matters of vital principle to authorized operators of motor coaches. There had been other cases of the same nature in the neighbourhood, but they differed from the present one, because the owners of the vehicles were, themselves, working at Longbridge, and would have to drive there whether or not they carried passengers. In the present case, it was alleged, the defendant had been picking up passengers in a seven-seater car and charging them • 6s. a week for taking them to and from work.
"RED AND WRITE" EXPANSION IN CHELTENHAM.
WE understand that a communicaVV tion received by Chelftnham Corporation from Red and White United Transport, Ltd., is to the effect that the company has purchased the whole of the issued share capital of the Cheltenham District Traction Co., and that the transfer took place on June 30 last. The new operator desired to assure the corporation that it would continu to do its utmost fully. to serve the needs of the borough in close co-operation with the corporation.
CHESTER'S BUSES DO PAY. hAENTIONING that, in nine years, a Ifigross profit of £65,000 had been made and that after paying interest on sinking fund the net profit had been £13,192, Councillor B. Reynolds, at a meeting of Chester City Council, remarked: "I hope what I say will give the lie, once and for all, to statements that have been made in certain quarters that the city's bus undertaking is not a business proposition," In addition to the profits mentioned, he reminded his colleagues that the buses paid £500 each year towards expenses of the Town Hall, and another item of note was the estimated cost— £270 a year—of the concession made to blind persons and disabled soldiers. Moreover, fares are still at pre-war level.
DURBAN BUYING MORE TROLLEYBUSES
WITH chassis and a general layout VV similar to the 16 Leyland machines ordered a few weeks ago, Durban Municipality has lately placed an order for 26 six-wheeled double-deck trolleybuses of the same make. Each vehicle will have accommodation for 70-72 passengers, and will be equipped with 100 h.p. traction Motors, with control gear suitable for limited regeneration. Electrical equipment for 13 of the vehicles will be supplied by the General Electric Co., Ltd., whilst the remaining machines will have equipment of Metropolitan-Vickers manufacture.
NEWCASTLE MAKES A BIG SURPLUS roR the year ended March 31 last 1 the trolleybus undertaking of Newcastle-upon-Tyne earned a surplus of £G5, 21S, compared with £49,022 the previous year. As the result of the change-over to motorbuses and trolleybuses, profit on the trams fell from £30,144 to £4,127. • The motorbus section shows a surplus of £43,958 as against £34,054 for the previous year.
The transport general manager, Mr, T. P. Easton, in his report, states that there are now 35 miles of tram routes, 57 miles of bus routes and 22i miles of trolleybus routes. The total expenditure to date incurred in providing
vehicles and overhead equipment for trolleybuses has been £300,000, which has been taken from revenue without recourse; Lo borrowing.
During the year the transport undertaking contributed £24,000 to the general rates, making the total contribution £315,093. During the period covered by the report three tram routes were converted to trolleybus operation. The net profit on all three forms of transport is £115,530, a decrease of £590 on the year before.
CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY'S GOOD COACH RETURN.
THE coach department of Plymouth Co-operative Society reports that revenue during the quarter ended June 3 last amounted to £2,191, an increase of £400, or 22.3 per cent., as compared with the figures for the corresponding period of 1938.
HARTLEPOOL TO OPPOSE TWO APPLICATIONS.
rf has been decided by Hartlepool
Town Council to oppose an application to the Traffic Commissioners by West Hartlepool Corporation, to operate a bus service in Hartlepool along the proposed town-planning road known as Winterbottom. The council is also opposing an application by United Automobile Services, Ltd., for a service between Hartlepool and West Ha rtlepool.
SOUTHPORT STILL CREATING RECORDS
I N the year ended March 31 last, Southport Transport Department operated its buses at a gross profit of 226,789, revenue having totalled 4106,007 and working expenses £79,218. Net revenue charges reduced the surplus for the year to £15,405. which contrasts with £12,921 in the previous year It is now four years since Southport abolished trams and each year has witnessed an increase in the surplus 13:rade on the undertaking. During the past year, the receipts created a new record. In this period, the aggregate mileage was 2,279,265, and the total number of passengers carried was 17,735,099.
At the end of the period covered by the report the corporation was operating 49 vehicles, all but two of them tieing double-deckers.
As a sidelight on the change-over from trams to buses, it is interesting to learn that the whole of the tramway track has now been removed and the roadway made good at a total net cost of nearly £34,000.
"EASTERN COUNTIES" GAS-BUS.
A SINGLE-DECK bus, with pro.
ducer-gas pant, is being tried out by the Eastern Counties Omnibus Co., Ltd. The installation of the plant has reduced the seating capacity from 36 to SO.