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"Toy" dogs, but not large dogs, are to be allowed in the Eastbourne Corporation's motorbuses.
The Bakewell 1..7.D.C., at its meeting on the 7th instant, when Mr. A. P. Payne-Gallwey presided, decided that the matter of a motorbus license between Crrindleford. and Bakewell should come up again after an interval of three months from its refusal.
Bus or Tube?
"The Daily Mail " has been conducting a series of comparative trips, between numerous points in London, both by tube and motorbus, and it has found that each can beat the other according to the choice of points. The results are finally summarised thus : ADVANTAGES.
"Motor omnibus.—Picks up a passenger from the pavement and drops him within a few yards of his destination.
" Tube.'—Travels at a speed impossible in the congestion of the streets, and maintains service of trains that is commendably frequent."
DISADVANTAGES.
"Motor omnibus.—Cannot make full use of its speed through being hampered by slow vehicles.
"'Tube.'—A surprising amount of time is lost in booking, in lifts, and corridors, in waiting for trains and in walking to the nearest station."
The conclusion is : "Travellers, when in haste, should acquire the habit of determining how these good and bad points may affect any journey that is contemplated." We do not exactly follow how visitors to London can come to any decision themselves, and we would again urge upon the directors of the several London omnibus companies the ex iency of their doing something to advertise routes and connections.
Killed on the Near Side.
A fatal accident occurred at Hackney, a little more than a fortnight ago, and the verdict of the coroner's jury, having regard to the present state of the law, is of more than passing interest. A woman named Mrs. Mates, who had alighted at Morning Lane, Mare Street, from a horsedrawn tramcar, was run over and killed by a motorbus which was being driven between the tramcar and the near-side kerb. Independent evidence was called to show that the bus was only travelling at the rate of about five miles an hour, and Inspector Jones stated that regulations were shortly to be issued which would alter the present requirement that tramcars should be overtaken on the off side.
The jury returned a verdict of " accidental death," and exonerated the driver from all blame. Sportsmen and Public Motors.
Adverting to the illustration of the Sutherland Motor Traffic Company's fleet of Albion vehicles, for mail and passenger service, which was illustrated by us two weeks ago (page 87), a local correspondent advises us that these machines have been found extremely suitable to withstand the rough roads in the Highlands of Scotland, and that they are widely used to take sportsmen and tourists to their respective centres of interest.
A Manchester Liquicir The end of the story of the liquidation of the Manchester District Motor Omnibus Company, Limited, has been seen in a return to the shareholders of sod. in respect of each .4.1 share (los. paid) held. Some big claims under contracts had to be settled, as our readers will recollect, and the litigation by an aggrieved shareholder, Mr. A. E. Healey, who had spent ,,3,000 on law and other costs, resulted in the liquidator's paying him ,5oo towards that expenditure. The record of this undertaking, from whatever light it be viewed, can only be regarded as lamentable, and we hope that later enterprise in the same district, for which Mr. William Stanway, the local agent of the Ryknield Company, is responsible, will provide, as it deserves to do, a happy contrast.
Richmond Wants Motorbuses.
Richmond is exceedingly upset that the L.G.O.C. has put horse omnibuses to run through Mortlake and Richmond to Ham, Kingston and Surbiton. The local Press makes a strong appeal for the change to motors at the earliest possible moment.
Tramcar Trailers.
Our contemporary, "The Tramway and Railway World," in commenting upon the intended trial of two L.C.C. double-deck tramcars coupled together, remarks : " Undoubtedly, trailers are a nuisance to the general vehicular traffic in crowded streets, and it is improbable that they will be tolerated in this country to the same extent as they are in America and on the Continent. . . . The proposal for London differs radically from any tramway trailer-car arrangement used in this country, because the so-called
is to be a motor-equipped car, „u tro..1 cars will be worked from the front platform of the leading car, by a species of multiple-unit control, on the same principle as is familiar in the case of trains on electric railways. This is a new departure in the domain of tramways."
We again express doubt, as we did on the 1st instant, as to whether there is room in the streets of London for so enormous a unit as two double-deck tramcars, altogether apart from the question of fairness to other users of the highway, and to the limitation of motorbus companies to single vehicles of much smaller seating capacity than a single tramcar.
A Naples Project.
The British Acting Consul-General at Naples (Mr. George Turner), in his report on the trade of Southern Italy which has just been issued by the Foreign Office, says that the municipality has been making experiments with a view to creating a line of motor omnibuses starting from the centre of the city at the Piaz2a San Ferdinand°, running all along the top of the Vomero hill, and reaching the tramway system at the point of Positlipo. The road traversed is practically a continuous line of villas, to whose owners and occupiers such a line will be of immense value, Noise Abatement.
Quite the most amusing feat',:re re the Chief Commissioner's proposals for automatic warning of excess speed in London is the delightful selfcomplacency of Mr. Bowden Green and the Street Noise Abatement Association. This gentlemen has been unburdening himself to an interviewer, and takes credit for having " moved " Sir Edward Henry.
Turkish Prospects.
In view of the interest that has been aroused by the shipment of a number of secondhand Scott-Stirling omnibuses to Turkey, the following extract from a report of the French Chamber of Commerce at Constantinople should be noted :-" At present. the wretched condition of the majority of the roads, the tack of bridges, the impossibility of getting repairs dom.-, and the difficulty in obtaining supplies of petrol in the interior, all tend to hinder the extension of this business here. In any case, this type of vehicle will only be useful for transporting passengers." As stated by us on the 4th February, new machines should have been chosen.