PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
THE MOTOR COACH MOVEMENT IN FRANCE.
Greater Interest Being Taken in the Road Motor for Passenger Carrying.
WE have called attention several times during the past few years to the extraordinarily slow progress which the motor-coach movement is making in France. It is a most curious fact that whilst France is the second greatest automobilelproducing country in the world (England comes third now !), public passenger transport on the roads should be so neglected—neglected, that is, from the point of view of the ordinary passenger. The tourist is already catered for to a certain extent, and the splendid tourist trips run by the P.L.M. and Midi Railways have been described in these pages.
At last, however, there are signs of a gradual awakening, and it is the great railway concerns which are taking the initiative. The latest developments in the direction of genuine passenger services by road include a series of new routes in -Normandy and Brittany which are to be operated by 'the French State Railways aiul the Nord Railway Co.
The most important of these routes lies between Rennes and Caen. It is to be opened by the Chemins da •Fer de PEtat and, according to a public antonneement which has just been made, the service will be maintained by fast, closed coaches provided with every corn
fort in the way of internal heating, lighting, etc. The coaches will be run experimentally at first on three days a week from Caen and on three days from Rennes. Should the passenger traffic obtained be satisfactory, a daily service in each direction will follow. Coaches from Rennes connect with the night express from Bordeaux and, in the opposite direction, the arrival of coaches from Caen will allow passengers time for dinner before the departure of the Bordeaux train.
Another new line of coaches has just been started by the State Railways between Falaise :Conde cur Noirean and
Filers. This service is a daily one, and the timetable has been arranged to give connection with the best trains at Falaise. and Flora.
The Nord Railway Co. have also joined in the movement by opening two new routes, one between Verbena and Villers Cotterets, in the Oise district,and the other between Saint Quentin and Arras, tenching Peronne, Conibles and Bapaume. This is a stiff 50-mile run and a regular morning and evening service is already in operation. The coaches take about 2 hrs. 50 niins. for the journey.
Private enterprise is beginning to take a hand in the game, but to a very limited extent at present. The latest development in this direction is that of long-distance coaches from Paris to Nice, which will run throughput this winter.