1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192 
• Twenty. Years of Progress
Page 86
Page 87
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
in Scottish Transport
back over a OOKIN , C.; period of 20 years, before 'the time of the 1930 and 1933 Acts, takes us to the heyday of the "barrow-boys" of the passenger and haulage business, when a man who had a pound stake and a win at long odds one day. 'night blossom out as a road transport operator the next.
Cold statistics, valuable although they can be for other purposes, reveal little of the state of affairs that existed at a time when public safety was at a discount and a great deal of the free enterprise was piratical.
The coming of the 1930 Act marked the end of an era, and the 1933 Act closed the chapter. Cut-throat competition of the 'twenties was particularly intense in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. Buses raced from the city centre to Balloch and other popular destinations, Stories are told of one big operator who followed the practice of locking other owners' buses in at the kerbside by crowding his own superior forces around them and not allowing his rivals to depart until the aggressor vehicles had a full complement of passengers!
In those days it was common for buses to run without any kind of visual indicator, destinations being announced by the shouting of the conductors. One of the operators in the Glasgow district had a name the same as that of a large colliery district. From this area, which was not the one to which he operated, many of the colliers went to town for a Saturday night's celebration and, returning in a somewhat inebriated state, boarded the bus which they thought was bound for their home town, with the result that there were weekly altercations with abusive passengers, and not infrequently lengthy detours were necessary to put the misguided miners back on their right route.
On the road haulage side of the industry, excessive hours were often worked, but the effect of the 1933 Act, even before the establishment of the Road Haulage Wages Board, was beneficial.
Long before the 1939-45 watthe'position had become stabilized, but during the period from 1938 to 1948 considerable changes took place. The total number of vehicles on the haulage side increased from 42,051 to 60,665. Consolidation of the industry is shown by the fact that A-licence operators decreased from 1,740,to 1,465, although the number of vehicles rose from 7,169 to 8,186.
In the B-licence category, both operators and vehicles increased, the former from 3,074 to 3,317 and the latter from 5,143 to 7,011. On their part, C licensees and their machines showed a vast growth in number from 14,797 and 29,234 respectively to 22,960 and 44,388. "
The number of local authorities providing transport remained at four—Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Public-service-vehicle operators dropped from 598 to 490, whilst the number of their vehicles rose from 5,799 to 6,570.
On the operating side, between the end of the war and August, 19'48, Mr. W. Quin, Scottish Licensing Authority, told me, a total of 850,000 additional weekly running miles had been made.
One thing that strikes the traveller when he uses road services to any extent in Scotland is that, once outside the Glasgow area, there are few bus stations to be seen, and that, in the main, passengers have to be satisfied with shelterless kerbside stands. So far as the operators are concerned, it may well be that they have other uses, such as the purchase of new vehicles, for their money; but it seems surprising that local authorities have not been more insistent upon the provision of amenities which, in recent years, every Englishman has come to look upon as a right.
One well-known authority on transport matters made a guess that all concerned were willing to limit expenditure until they could "have it-on" any nationalization scheme that might come into being in the future.
Slow progress seems to have been made With the employnient of 8-ft.-wide vehicles. Although the use of
. buses. of ahisawidth, was first authorized in Scotland oyer..a two years ago'. therc. are still :,irritatingrestriction4, one of them being a prohibition from passing on the off side of trains, so thilt 'progress on some city roads is Made unnecessarily sluggish.' %However, it is heped that experience. of running will result in the ultimate rernoVaI of these regulations,. so Aral-operators will be free to give . increased ,comfort to their passengers. and allow greater convenience. to theirconductors.
Observation's suggest that in many parts of Scotland there is a higher' prbportiorf of low bridges than in England, so that in many areas great care has to be• ' exercised in patiteing buses. Whilst expecting transport to be providedwithoutdifficulty, the town planners sOrnetimes ;fail. to appreciate the impossible situations which they create. An instance is citioted of a sizeable new community that was established in the industrial belt, access to Which Was barred by low bridges on every main roirte around. As a result, both public and transport officials suffered— all • the inevitable inconvenienceswhen erideayours. were made to satisfy heavy peak-hour demands with a single-decker fleet: When the supply position eases, it is thought, many such districts may aim to acquire vehicles of the Crellin type.
Average Speeds Falling Examination of schedules reveals that, as elsewhere, there is a tendency in Scotland for overall lads speeds to fall, the slowing-down being caused primarily by • the restoration of pre-war stops and by agreements with • the unions On the question of lay-over. With the exception of some slight increases in certain municipal fares, charges to the public have varied very little over a long period.
In coaching, 1949 has been an exceptional year and it is generally admitted that but for the numerous visitors who travelled this way, the Scottish hotels would have had a lean time. The place-to-place tour with its one-night stops does not enjoy unqualified popularity with hotel managers, pleased although they are to have such business.
What they would prefer is a lodger stay, but in such a case the coach operator from distant places becomes liable to particular restrictions imposed on fantail tours, which prevent him from making more than one trip out from the chosen centre with his own vehicle and passengers. With the support of the local people, • however, it is thought that the regulations may eventually be relaxed.
On the haulage side, much is heard in Scotland of problems relating to the fishing industry, but an examination of the position suggests that the supply of transport is adequate. Here the trouble seems to be in arranging vehicle availability to meet the widely
fluctuating requirements, and Mr. Quin, with whom I discussed the, question, thought there seemed to be ass urgent need for fishing fleets to have some form of radio communication with the shore, so that they could indicate whether a heavy or light catch was being brought in.
The mass of .heavy road haulage in Scotland lies within the great industrial belt stretching between Leith on the Firth of Forth and Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, and the Fife area to the north of the Forth.
I am told by industrialists that great developments are, in progress in the coalfields of Fife and Midlothian,' bringing with them prospects of a marked commercial change and the likelihood of a substantial shift of
population during the next' half century. This would seem to indicate the desirability of an additional road bridge over the river, perhaps linked in some way constructionally to the Forth Bridge for the railways between Queensferry and Inverkeithing. At present,it is necessary for vehicles to go up to Kincardine to cross by the new bridge there, which puts an extra 30 miles on r-ilany a journey..
Catering for a population only a seventh that of England and spread over a country three-fifths the size, the railways have always faced many obstacles to efficient operation. Recently the Railway Executive has closed a number of stations up and down the country. and it seems likely that this practice will continue. Thus, there, is every possibility that both passenger and goods road transport will be needed in increasing quantity to provide alternative facilities for local
populations. FT.