BIG DEMANDS FOR REGENT MARK III
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NOW embarked upon its large replatement programme, London Transport heads the list of recent purchasers of A.E.C.s With a new contract for 500 Regent Mark Ill chassis. This undertaking has called for 1,000 machines of this type during the present year, as well as A.E.C. single-deckers, and for double-deck trolleybuses to be manufactured by the new joint company, British United Traction, Ltd.
Regent Mark III chassis also figure in recent contracts from two municipalities, Rochdale and Eastbourne. Rochdale, taking 25 machines, had, before the war, 18 A.E.C. double-deckers in commission; Eastbourne, which has five machines on order, has put nine doubledeckers into service since 1936.
Among the • company-owned undertakings, the West Riding Automobile Co., Ltd., Wakefield, may be specially mentioned for its contract for 16 Mark Ills; nine similar vehicles were supplied earlier in the year.
A number of operators that originally ordered Mark us will now be taking Mark hi models. Among them are the municipalities of Leeds (15), Douglas (2), Aberdeen (5), Sunderland (6), Huddersfield (9), and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (3), and the Rhondda Transport Co., Ltd. (10).
"EASTERN NATIONAL"
DEPRECATES STRIKE ACTION A N official statement issued by the r %Eastern National Omnibus Co., Ltd., makes it clear that the recent strike of employees at the Luton depot was unofficial and unauthorized. The management has been in touch with the Transport and General Workers' Union and the strike action has been taken contrary to the advice of that body.
Wages and conditions were considered by a court of inquiry appointed by the Minister of Labour, and the recommendations made as recentlyas June 1 last were accepted by the Union and the company, and made retrospective to February 17, 1946. The company has an agreement with the T. and G.W.U. covering the wages and condi
tions of employment based on the recommendations of the court.
The statement concludes: "It is hoped that the employees concerned . . . will see the error of the action . . and follow the advice of their chosen representatives, the Transport and General Workers' Union."
RIBBLE COSTS DOUBLED RIBBLE COSTS DOUBLED
OPERATIONAL costs of Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., had been doubled since pre-war years, said Mr. Bottomley, general manager, in the course of an interview with Morecambe Transport Committee on the question of payments to the company. The present rate of 314. per mile was unacceptable now, and he suggested 8c1. per riffle.
The committee then countered with a proposal that &I. per mile should be the maximum, and the general manager promised to submit this suggestion to the directors.
WIDER BLACKPOOL BUSES MEXT year Blackpool will have 8-ft.11 wide luxury buses, with all the refinements upon which experiments have been conducted for several months. There will be only one central staircase, instead of two, thereby increasing carrying capacity and improving comfort Fifty of these wider buses are on order and agreement has been reached between the transport department and the Chief Constable regarding the routes-on which they may operate.
ONCE BITTEN
QOUTH SHIELDS Transport Com0.-imittee, at a special meeting, has decided to take steps to prevent a recurrence of an incident, when special trolleybuses for riverside workers were held up through a cut ordered by the Central Electricity Board in the elec tricity supply. ; SICK PAY FOR NEWCASTLE .
EMPLOYEES
A SICK-PAY scheme for transport .rt employees has been adopted by Newcastle-on-Tyne Transport and Electricity Committee. The plan will cost £16,000 and will, it is expected, come into operation at the beginning of 1947.
BUS BODYBUILDERS MUST HAVE SKILLED MEN
rrEIE refusal of the Ministry of Fuel .1 and Power to grant additional petrol for carrying men from Newcastle-onTyne to Amble, where they are employed at a coachbuilding works,' has been the subject of further correspondence between the Northern Area Licensing Authority and Amble Council.
The Licensing Authority said that the skilled men concerned had recently left the employment of Northern Coachbuilders, Ltd., Newcastle, where they were making bodies for public-service vehicles. Contrary to what had been said, these key men were not training other labour at the Amble works. At Amble they were engaged for one third of the time on public-service vehicles, one third on goods vehicles and one third on private cars.
The Authority said that the men were free to work where they liked, but the loss of skilled bodybuilders was having serious repercussions on the maintenance of public-service vehicles.
BUSES TO OUST SOUTHAMPTON'S TRAWLS
A CHANGE-OVER from trams to petrol-engined buses in Southampton is planned. Of 25 buses on order, nine have been delivered, and 30 more buses will arrive next year, it is hoped. This was stated in a recent speech by Alderman F. S. Smith, J.P., chairman of Southampton Transport Committee. lie stated that the change would be expensive, and would require all the undertaking's profits and a loan.
TELL-TALE WEAR
WHEN members of the Bradford WIT centre of the Institute of the Motor Industry visited the central repair works of the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd„ at Harrogate, Mr. G. L. Lindsay. chief engineer, said that when a vehicle came into the works one could be almost certain, from the characteristics of its wear, of the part of the company's area in which it had been running. Operational conditions, he said, varied widely.