PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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• The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
BUS SERVICES IN AND AROUND WORCESTER.
What Proprietors are Doing to Meet the Needs of the Travelling
Public in an Important Midland Centre.
ASURVEY of the passenger transport resources of any district is -always more tempting at a time when work and business are at their height in the summer and at holiday time. On the other hand, a review can be made much more methodically after the rush of the busy season is ever. It is not, therefore, with any idea of talking " big things," but rather of noting the regular and more settled everyelay work that we take a brief glimpse at what is being done in and around the city of Worcester by those who provide passenger travel facilities for the public.
Since Little Angel Street has been widened and renamed Angel Place, and shelters for bus passengers have been provided therein, the " Place " has beCome more like an omnibus station than a city street. Midland " Red" buses are passing in and out every few minutes all day long, weekdays and Sundays. Then buses belonging to Messrs. P. Owen and Sons, of Abberley, help further to emphasize the vast amount of loading and unloading of passengers that goes on, The company running the Midland " Red" buses have recently opened an attractive office right on the spot, with attendants always there ready to answer inquiries and advise passengers in every possible way. Indeed, so many uniformed
men are ready to help that one is reminded of a-railway organization. This office is of the greatest convenience to the travelling public.
The company's service of buses to and from all parts is very numerous, althouge. less so on the busiest and main routes at this time of the year than between Easter and the end of October. For instance, there is a bus to and from Birmingham every three-quarters of an hour all the week, and at half-hourly intervals all day on Saturdays, and the same on Sundays after 12 o'clock. The service to and from Malvern is of about the same frequency, the scheduled service. being Birmingham to Malvern and Malvern to Birmingham via Angel Place, Worcester. In summer this service is a half-hourly one, with the number of buses in use duplicated or even triplicated. Even in winter the service buses have to be augmented on this route on Saturdays and Sundays.
There are many other short and longdistant° services, the buses on which go to make Angel Place more like a bus station. There is the Ombersley-Kidderminster-Stourbridge service and a service on a purely country route to Kempsey, Severn Stoke and Upton-onSevern that has grown enormously during recent years, as well as a dozen Or more other : which serve to prove how
the company endeavours to satisfy the .modern demand for travel even in remote country parts.
The Midland " Red " Co. continue to employ pueumatic-tyred saloon buses of their S.O.S. type in great numbers, and these are most agreeably easy and comfortable for travelling. This 'type is used largely for special hire work, but niany are employed as service buses as well. These buses are in great deniaud, Parties frequently insisting upon them being supplied for special occasions.
Apart from the Midland " Reds " there is a number of well-appointed, privately owned saloon and double-deck buses that serve certain districts around the city. Most of these differ from the " Reds " in point of depot. The latter ply from town garages, whilst the former begin and end their journeys in the country.
These buses are a credit to their owners, and the absence of any serious accident shows how well they are managed. It is gratifying to note that unnecessary competition rarely occurs, and " pirating " has practically ceased. Good .feeling exists among the various proprietors, each keeping to his own route, which, in most cases, he originally founded.
Messrs, P. Owen and Sons have about half-a-dozen buses working from Abberley, a village nine miles or so from Worcester, to all the towns within a reasonable distance. This company own some very good saloon buses. Mr. Moor also runs a number of well-appointed vehicles from the same village. Both these owners have made good progress— a fact that may surprise many, seeing that only a small village represents the starting point. There is, of course, much intervening country which is served by the buses. Both companies originally ran carrier carts.
Like the two owners just mentioned, the successful undertaking of Mr. Geo. Burnham, of Clifton-on-Teme, was the upshot of the use of a carrier's van. Mr. Burnham appears to have been very successful and, like Messrs. Owen and Moor, has been working passengercarrying vehicles for very many years. These thiee were the first private undertakings of the kind in the district. Mr. Burnhara's fleet consists of a doubledecker and a number of good saloon buses.
Amongst others who succeed very well in the country must be mentioned Mr. A. Matthews, of Whithourne, who has recently put another vehicle, in the form of a saloon, on the road, and Mr. Wood, of Cradley. A very attractive little Vulcan bus comes in from Welland, in the south of the county, mid others come from as far away as Tenbury. Some of the last-named are in competition with the Midland "Reds," but only to a limited extent, where the one service passes over part of the route of the other. Nevertheless, they seem to work satisfactorily and to make steady progress.
The country buses do a considerable amount of running to market places, and goods carrying forms_ a regular por tion of their business. The Midland " Reds " have an extensive goods service to Birmingham, the Black Country and many other parts, and the company have recently instituted a Scammell sixwheeler for this class of work between Birmingham and Worcester. Some of the Midland " Red " services cover long distances and serve a host of towns and villages ; the Birmingham to Malvern route is over SO miles long. The length of this route and the fact that a service of buses at intervals of half-anhour or three-quarters of an hour can be run daily serves to emphasize the importance of the district and of the value of road vehicles to the inhabitants.
A noteworthy point to observe in connection with the vehicles operating in and around Worcester is that all the buses, to whomsoever they belong, are maintained in good order, give comfortable riding, and are most punctual with regard to time. The old ramshackle, makeshift bus has almost disappeared. The driver is railed off from the space in which the passengers stand, whilst the body is built out at the back so that the passengers standing at this point eo not impede the conductor in his work or obstruct the moVement of passengers alighting from the vehicle. It will be toted that the sides and ends of the upper deck arc not boarded as is usually the case, but provided with wire screens for the purposes of protection.
In spite of its size, it will be seen that the vehicle is fitted with large-size pneumatic tyres of the straight-sided type. twins being used at the rear ; they are mounted on Simplex cast steel detachable-rim type road wheels.
Public Services in Luxemburg • and Belgium.
The first public motor services in Luxemburg, organized by the Societe Nationale des Chemins de E'er Vieinaiux, which recently secured powers to run motor vehicles as well as local railways, have just been put into operation. Four services are being run, all of them radiating from Houffalize and giving communication with Manbay, Laroche, Bastogne and Gouvy, which have hitherto been cut off from the railways. Owing to the hilly nature of the district relatively small vehicles which carry 22 passengers are being utilized, the driver also acting as the conductor. A service with larger vehicles is also being started between Etterbeek and Overyssche.