Operating Aspects of
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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
STOCKTON'S BEST YEAR FOR BUSES
STOCKTON municipal bus undertaking had its hest year in the period endcd March 31 last, when the gross profit was £49,065, compared with
£36,831 in the previous year. The total income amounted to £144,225, against £131,757. The number of passengers carried was 22,756,056. A seven years' review shows that the gross profits on the undertaking have amounted to £229,034. The net debt on the old tramways has been reduced from £155,433 to £109,165, and on the buses from £62,505 to £4,715, ADDED CHARGE ON SCHOLARS' CONTRACT TICKETS
Iview of the lengthening of the school terms, through the war-time curtailment of holidays, the Yorkshire Regional Fares Committee has raised the question of an additional charge for scholars' contract tickets for travel to and from school by bus. The Transport Commissioner for the Northeastern Region, Major F. S. Eastwood, has agreed that an additional charge, pro-rata to the authorized scales, may be made without individual applications for authority to do so.
The Commissioner should, however, he advised of the additional charge made and the numbers of the rodservice licences concerned, for purposes of record.
The education department of West Riding County Council has agreed to• accept the additional charge..
GLASGOW ANTICIPATES BETTER
ON the current year's working a surplus of £47,976 is anticipated by Glasgow Transport Department, as a result of the improvement in revenue produced by the increase in fares. For the past two years the undertaking has shown a deficit.
Mr. R. Fraser Smith, general manager of the transport department, in the estimates which he presented last Monday, anticipated that the total revenue will be higher by more than £340,000 than the actual earnings for the year • ended May 31, 1940. Before the fares were raised, it was feared that the revenue would be short of expenditure by a figure corresponding to that gain. Mr. Smith gave the following figures as the probable revenue and expenditure for the three sections of the undertaking for the_ current year : —Bus • Section—Traffic revenue, £927,700; working expenses, £830,200; depreciation and interest charges, £164,853; deficit, £67.353. Tram Section—Traffic revenue, £2,604,000; working expenses, £2,098,850; depredation and interest charges, £378,382; surplus, £126,768. Underground Section—Traffic revenue, £143,355; working .expenses, £123,000; depreciation and interest charges, £31,794; deficit, £11,439.
The revenue of the three sections last year was as follows: Bus, £861,722; trams, £2,358,021; Underground, £131,564. The total deficit of £90,703 was. made up of :—Bus section, £72,465; Underground, £13,969; trams, £4,269 SURPLUS BUSES ON LOAN
WE learn that Thornton Cleveleys Transport Committee has decided not to dispose of buses which are not now in use but to _loan them to other corporations or companies, in case of necessity.
CO-OPERATIVE COAC.HING SUFFERS
THE interim report of the Plymouth Co-operative Society for the quarter ended June last shows that the turnover of the motor-coach department amounted to £1,758, a decrease of £432, Or 19.7 per cent„ on the corresponding quarter of last year.
NEWCASTLE FACING MUCHREDUCED PROFIT A T Newcastle-on-Tyne the transport and electricity committee is to raise fares, and a minimum charge of
will be introduced in place of the ld. fare. The decision has been taken as a result of rising costs. The Ministry of Transport is to be asked to approve the revised fares. The committee expects that this year's profits will be £65,000 lower than last year.
WEEKLY TICKETS COST MORE IN GLASGOW
(IN August 1 Glasgow Corporation ‘.../ approved its transport committee's recommendation that the charge for weekly tickets on the municipal. bus services within the city should be increased from 3s. to Sc. 6d., the ticket being available for 28 journeys over seven days. Before the increase and the limitation of availability can operate, the consent of the Regional Traffic Commissioner will have tube obtained.
ANOTHER FARES INCREASE AT NOTTINGHAM?
FuRTgER increases in bus fares were hinted at when Mr. G. W. Plackett, chairman of Nottingham Passenger Transport Committee presented the annual report of the transport department. He emphasized that, in the first five months of the past year, receipts were up. by £10,600, but in the remaining seven months black-out conditions and bad weather reduced the takings by £39,600, compared with the '.corresponding period of the preceding year.
Fares were increased .early in April, but a reduction of nearly £10,000 in working expenses, brought about by reduced mileage, was offset by. its-teased costs of labour and materials.
TOKEN TRAVEL FOR MEN ON LEAVE
FREE travelling facilities for men of the Forces in uniform on the munici-, nal-transport services at Birmingham, when they are on leave in the city for a least five days, are to be made available. The transport department is to bear the, cost. The matter was considered on Tuesday last, and the transport committee recommended the issue of free tokens to the value of 6d. for each day in respect of men on leave at addresses within two miles of the city, to the value of 9d. per daYbetween two and three miles, and is. -per day beyond three miles.
HIGHER FARES WHERE OILERS ARE RUN
" THE war has" put an end, for the time being, to the replacvnent of electric tramways by oil-driven buses, and,: quite apart from the heavy drain which the latter make on the nation's shipping and foreign-exchange resources in war-time, it is clear also that the public has to pay higher tares in towns which have adopted oil buses, than in those which have retained their trams or trolleybuses." This statement appears in the annual report of Mr. L. Romero, city electrical enlineer of Salford.
FLEETWOOD ATTACKS BLACKPOOL'S BUS ARRANGEMENTS
C1T1C1SMS were made at a meeting of Fleetwood Town Council on July 31 of the transport -service Provided by Blackpool Corporation between the two towns, despite representations by the Fleetwood authority. Councillor T. Roberts declared that" it is evident that Blackpool Corporation cannot, or will not, cope with the traffic. This council will have-to consider approaching road-transport bodies to get an alternative adequate service." The existing system, he said, was becoming chaotic. Fleetwood. had had more visitors than ever and the service had been inadequate. Not the slightest consideration had been given to Fleetwood people, and passengers had had to make a detour, he added.
EASTBOURNE BUSES CONTINUE TO DO WELL •
NEARLY £2,500 more, profitwas made on the operation of the bus undertaking of Eastbourne Corporation in the year ended March 31 last than in the previous year, -the net profit corning out at £4,367, compared with £1,942 in the previous 12 months.. Gross revenue totalled £85,551, whilst total expenditure amounted to £74,746. The gross profit of £10,805 was little
less than in the preceding year. • The. number of passengers carried in, ' the year was 14,492,183, the bus mileage,' totalling 1,222436. Both figures. are lower than for the previous year, although there is a proportionate increase in the number of passengers carried. , The borough treasurer considers that the undertaking isdn a sound financial position and regards it as satisfactory that the past year has closed with a substantial profit.