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Passenger Traffic by Road Steadily Advancing.

7th February 1928
Page 91
Page 92
Page 91, 7th February 1928 — Passenger Traffic by Road Steadily Advancing.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

WITH each Succeeding special issue of The • Commercial Motor dealing with passenger vehicles, the feeling is engendered in the minds of those who are preparing it for publication that there Is some risk of stressing . unduly the tendency towards luxury und comfort disclosed by the most recent of the products of the coachbuilder. • Yet it is inevitable that this tendency should be studied a n d examined from the point of view of the possibility of the needlessness of it or, conversely, of the desirability of encouraging Its development.

This issue will, we think, show that the coachbuilder, the bus constructor a n the chassis manufacturer are moulding their designs upon• a firm basis of refinement, the incentive doming directly• from the operator and indirectly from the travelling public. The discrimination of the public is almost uncanny in its instantaneity and thoroughness. The bus with the best equipment of wheels, tyres and springs, with the most comfortable upholstery a n d with the most complete protection from the elements will se cure the bulk of the traffic. The coach with a plan of seating which is suggestive of sociability if the party be large, or sufficiently so if it be made up of twos and threes, and which offers the attraction of side windows, a quickly available hood, 'comfortable seats and good legroom will actually create traffic at a holiday resort.

The observation coach possesses this ability of creating traffic to the fullest degree. The specimens of this type of coach shown at Olympia did more to incline visitor's towards the idea of a summer holiday period in 1928 spent on a motor coach than all the literature ever published in the interests of road travel. The travelling public has, of course, been educated by our main-line railways to expect comfortable conditions and enterprise in catering for its wants on a journey, and one may justly compare the development in the past eight years from the crude char-à-bancs on a lorry chassis to the magnificent touring coach of to-day with the devlopment from the train of 30 years ago with no intercommunication between compartments, no lavatory provision and no means of getting a meal except during the short stops at certain railway junctions, to such trains as the Royal Scot or the Riviera Express. That we have reached the highest possible level of attainment in luxury travel by road and its consequent attractiveness to traffic cannot even be suggested.

As with comfort, so with convenience in bus services. But the naerest fringe of possibilities in the provision of bus facilities has been touched. Bus traffic can be substantially developed and is being so, for the provision of the facilities will create the traffic to make use of them. All that is needed now is a better understanding between those who are willing to show enterprise in the establishment and expansion of the services and those municipal bodies which are set in authority over them, some of which possess powers to provide passenger-travel facilities within their own areas.

The difficulty that confronts any municipality which desires to establish its own passenger services is that its enterprise is brought to an abrupt end at the municipal boundary—a point which may haVe little or no relation to the centres where the traffic may originate. The completion of the service to the point to which the traffic may desire to be carried is seldom possible, for powers to run outside its own boundaries are rarely granted to any public authority. Yet the existence of a Municipal passenger service may just be sufficient to cramp the efforts of private enterprise to run a through service. The need for co-operation in this matter is indicated, as it is, too, in the case of the use of the large-capacity bus—to wit, the six-wheeler.

The wear of the roads caused by this type of bus is less than that of the four-wheeler for a given volume of traffic, fewer traffic-units being required for a given number of passengers. But it, is not economic to employ six wheels for a vehicle unless full advantage can be taken of their ability to carry the larger load. The Order of the Minister of Transport issued in August last regularizing the use of the six-wheeler and permitting an overall length of 30 ft. was, unfortamately, spoiled by the circular which accompanied it, addressed to the local licensing authorities, and which suggested that an overall length of more than 28 ft, should not be sanctioned except in special circumstances. This recommendation has had the effect of holding up enterprise in all directions and it is sincerely to be hoped that the Minister will agree to a modification which shall serve to encourage the use of more than four wheels.

A word may here be addressed to our readers interested in passenger travel in the Dominions, our overseas possessions and foreign countries. There is a fund of information in this issue about the type, capacity, weight and dimensions, characteristics and price of all the chassis on the British market suitable for passenger work. The British chassis manufacturer and the British coachbuilder can produce the finest passenger vehicles in the world. We have no hesitation in saying this, knowing that the statement cannot be refuted. Those who are establishing new passenger services or enlarging those which already exist cannot, therefore, do better than to ascertain what the British maker can supply and to pay heed to the fact that, for durability, good service and low running and maintenance costs, the British vehicle. can give a return which cannot be excelled—or, perhaps, equalled, whilst in design it leads the world.

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