Double-deckers on Sheffield Doncaster Route
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THE Yorkshire Licensing Authority on Monday granted the application of the Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield municipal bus undertakings to operate double-deck buses on their joint service between Sheffield and Doncaster. To make this possible, the route is to be diverted at two points to avoid a low bridge and an awkward bend.
Conisborough Urban District Council objected to an application by the three undertakings to alter a lid. fare on the route, covering a half-mile stage, to 2d.
Mr. R. F. Edwardson, for the council, said the proposed increase would hold local people to ransom. It was being made for administrative, rather than economic, reasons.
Mr. T. Bamford, Doncaster's general manager, said the change was required to assist a new fare system his undertaking wished to introduce. In a year it would reduce the number of tickets needed by 750,000. In 23 days only 113 people joined the buses between the two points.
The application was granted.
Last week Doncaster Corporation took the firSt step towards converting the Bentley trolleybus route by working certain of the journeys by motorbuses. The complete change-over will probably take a couple of months.
Mr. T. Bamford, general manager, told The Commercial Motor that the change did not indicate any intention of abandoning electric vehicles com 1)8 pletely. The Bentley route is isolated from the rest 'of the system and a big scheme of road and bridge reconstruction at the northern entrance to the town would mean moving the standards and overhead several times in the next few years if the trolleybuses were retained.
The Bentley service has needed nine vehicles at the busiest times. After its abandonment, the last of the sixwheeled trolleybuses will be scrapped and the corporation will then have a fleet of 30 modern four-wheelers which can all be kept under one roof.
Saving 40,000 Miles Advantage is being taken of the change-over to improve the service to Asksey by diverting one of the Bentley buses every hour. The diverted bus will leave North Bridge with no standing passengers and operate a protective fare, so that Ask sey passengers will have a chance to board it en route. By withdrawing the separate and irregular service to Asksey, about 40,000 miles a year will be saved.
Some 2,000 houses are being built at Castle Hills, in the northern part of the corporation's area, and a diversion and improvement of the existing Jossy Lane service are being planned in conjunction with the Yorkshire Traction Co., Ltd. The Armthorpe service has recently been extended to meet the needs of new housing.