£6,000 a Mile for Trolleybuses
Page 47
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
DORESENT-DAY installation costs for
trolleybus operation were between £6,000 and £10,000 per mile, according to the nature of the route. For the year ended. March, 1955, Ministry of Transport public road passenger statistics indicated that municipally owned passenger transport running costs averaged 4.44d. per mile for trolleybuses, compared with 4d. per mile for motorbuses. There was, however, an advantage of 1.38d. per mile to trolleybuses in the cost of electric power.
This was stated in a paper, "The Application of Electric Power for Road Passenger and Goods Transport," read on Monday before an East Regional Centre meeting of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, by Mr. T. P. O'Donnell, general manager of Ashtonunder-Lyne Transport Department.
Within its range of economic usage, the battery-electric was a better proposition than a petrol or oil-engined vehicle when operating on multi-stop delivery services.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN PERIL
" MANY Government and leading transport authorities do not even yet realize the peril of making our public transport entirely dependent on foreign oil supplies. Transport administrators must arrest this dangerous tendency and, in the national interest, it is common sense that everything possible should be done to avoid making our local passenger transport solely reliant on imported fuels."
This was stated by a spokesman of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association last week. Econoinie advantages of electric passenger vehicles had been greatly increased by the rise in the cost of oil fuel. Atomic power stations would make cheaper electricity likely in the near future and it was vital to reverse the abandonment of electric passenger transport, he added.
DANGEROUS GOODS AGREEMENT
A DRAFT agreement on the interI-1 national transport of dangerous goods by road is expected to be completed next year. The agreement will define the way in which goods should be labelled and presented for carriage, and will give safety rules for operating vehicles and the signs or signals to be carried by them.
COACHES FOR REFUGEES
THE Swedish Government are employing Linjcbuss coaches to carry from Austria the 3,000 Hungarian refugees Sweden is taking in. Thirtytwo 34-seat coaches, each with two drivers and a hostess, are being used for the operation. Thirteen of them are A.E.C.s. The 48-hour journey from Vienna to Malmo is being done night and day, stops being taken only for hot meals