The Motor Omnibus World.
Page 3
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The inhabitants of some of the outlying roads at Birkenhead are agitating for some better provision for their needs. There is a good service of electric trams in the town, but all the residential districts cannot be reached. One of the suggested motor bus routes is from Oxton, via Charlesville, Westbourne Road, and Grange Road.
For the twelve months ending with March 31st, 1905, the Corporation buses at Eastbourne carried over 1,025,000 passengers. These figures show an increase of over Ito per cent, compared with the preceding twelve months when the passengers carried were 440,000. These are facts which testify to the appreciation of the inhabitants.
Chester City Council has decided (in spite of a petition from the residents most concerned, in favour of buses) to lay down an extension of its trolley tram system in the Boughton district. The expenditure involved for one mile of track will be in the neighbourhood of £20,00o; a fifth of this sum would have provided an efficient bus service.
Crowland, in the south Lincolnshire Fen district, looks like getting some sort of communication with the outer world. The Montgomery Motor Company, of Peterborough, are proposing to run single deck buses, to carry 12 passengers. It is suggested that the vehicles shall run three times a week to Crowland from Peterborough; on Tuesdays from Crow-land to Spalding, and the sixth day from Crowland to Market Deeping.
Coinciding with the opening of the tourist season was the commencement of a service between Huntly and Aberchirder on May 1st, the Great North of Scotland Railway running two vehicles on the route. These are similar in all respects to those at present in use between Ballater and Braemar. The, time occupied for the journey will be 70 minutes, the fare being one shilling and sixpence. Parcels are carried at reasonable rates.
The local bus company at Tunbridge Wells has just placed a double-deck vehicle (to seat 32 passengers) on the route between Southborough and the centre of the town. The neighbourhood abounds in severe gradients, and is particularly adapted for a motor bus. If successful on the initial road, the company intend to add to their fleet as occasion serves. We are glad to notice that fresh capital was not raised to provide the mechanical vehicle, which was purchased out of current profits and the reserve fund.
The following extract from a letter just received by Messrs. Clarkson, Ltd., of Chelmsford, from a Tasmanian client has reference 'to two steam buses sent out some time ago :—" The running of the bus has been very satisfactory, and really exceeds my anticipations, and everyone that rides in the bus is astonished at its performance. On its present running, a distance of it miles out over a hilly road, which the coach takes ri hours to cover, the bus does in 14 hours, and has to negotiate a very severe gradient of i in 6. This it does easily with a full load."
We are quite unable to fathom the reasons which have gcverned the Corporation of Southend-on-Sea in refusing to license motor buses to run between the town via Great Wakering and Shoebury. It must be understood that the electric trams are owned by the town, and the route proposed to be covered by the buses would bring them into competition with the trams for a part of the distance. The only means of reaching Shoebury at present is by means of a cab, a method of locomotion quite unsuited to modern needs and poorly-lined pockets. In the discussion which ensued recently at the council meeting when the proposed motor license was negatived, there seemed to be a good.deal of—shall we say sneaking kindness, expressed for the e;414men, which the buses might oust from the route. We have every sympathy with a body of men who, from local accounts, have to work long hours for a moderate living, but the benefit of a few should not prevail against the necessities of the many. The " honest cabman ' cry seems to have prevailed with the majority of the council, but is that the real reason for the decision? It is the old argument of vested interests revived in the 20th century, but from what we hear we do not think the council in this case are the owners who are to be preserved from competition. Someone has an axe to grind. The Great Western Railway Company's service between Ascot and Windsor station was well patronised on Easter Monday, over 800 passengers being carried—a satisfactory result indeed.
The next service to be instituted by the Great Western Railway will be at Weymouth. A beginning wkh two Milnes-Daimler omnibuses will be made between the town and Wyke Regis.
Vienna (the capital of Austria) is in the peculiar position of having a horsed bus service which is run entirely by British capkal, and controlled largely by the directorate of the L.G.O. Co., Ltd. Keen competition has been set up by electric trains and a proposition is before the directors to replace horses with 3oh.p. motor buses.
Although the electric tramcar is invading Hastings and St. Leonards, and the roads at the back of the town and out to Bexhill are in the hands of the road breakers, yet the Corporation has succeeded in keeping the sea front sacred From the invader. The bus service covers the sea front from the Fish Market to West Marina, and is conducted by one Durkopp and eight Milnes-Daimlers, these maintaining a To minutes' service all day.
The whole route is wood paved, and it is curious to note that the entire surface of the wood is covered by grease spots, from the motor buses. Large dark spaces mark the usual stopping places, but the whole of the remainder of the road service is speckled with oval grease spots, the major axis of the oval being in the direction of travel. If the wood is carefully examined, the background between the more prominent grease spots is composed of older spots, so that every inch of the surface has received at least one coating of oil.
Probably the Corporation are not prepared to allow the omnibus company a subsidy for laying the dust, but when 2,500 motor omnibuses are plying in London, the reduction in the amount of street watering required may be an appreciable item. The ridiculous suggestion made recently by one London Borough Council, that " pneumatic tyres suck the creosote out of the wood blocks," may now be combated by the fact that motors also apply a preservative to the road surface, wood paving and macadam alike.
The " Daily News" came out with a rather startling statement recently concerning the services at Eastbourne and Hastings. Our contemporary said that the first buses used at both these towns were an inferior type, and had called forth a. torrent of indignation from the ratepayers! This is absolutely incorrect with respect to Eastbourne, as the original Milnes-Daimler vehicles have given perfect satisfaction from the commencement.
A correspondent of our contemporary " The Western Daily Mercury" writes from Plymouth and suggests that the motor buses running in that busy town should be relegated to the outlying districts, because invalids and sleeping children are disturbed, and persons riding and driving are inconvenienced. An editorial footnote neatly disposes of the carper, thus :—" Our correspondent asks the impossible. It is quite clear that the motor bus has come to stay, and that it serves a public need. It is noisy, but not more so than a tramcar."
The Dprbyshire Motor Omnibus Company, Ltd., has just been formed for passenger and goods service generally, and more particularly to connect the Grand Hotel at Baslow with the Midland Railway stations of Bakewell and Grindleford. The capital is £5,000 in £1 shares. If sufficient shares are subscribed for, it is proposed to purchase two buses to accommodate 20 passengers each at a total cost of ..t,8cio. The receipts are estimated at L:2 ss. per bus per day, equal to £1,64o los. for the two buses, whilst expenses are estimated at ,'1,178, leaving a profit of about LSoo per annum on an outlay of, say, 4.2,000. The preliminary expenses are estimated at L:roo, and the minimum subscription for allotment purposes is £1,200. Directors are Messrs. William Robinson, of Clarkehouse Road, Sheffield; Bernard Brittain, Ranmoor, Sheffield; and James Hind, Malin Bridge, Sheffield. The registered office of the company is at Alliance Chambers, George Street, Sheffield.