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PARIS PASSENGER-TRANSPORT TOPICS.—From Our Own Correspondent.

16th January 1913
Page 9
Page 9, 16th January 1913 — PARIS PASSENGER-TRANSPORT TOPICS.—From Our Own Correspondent.
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The Last Paris Horsed Sus.

The last horse-drawn Omnibus was seen in Paris on Saturday morning, 11th January, 1913. The omnibus service being a monopoly, it will be impossible in future to find anywhere within the city or in the near or distant suburbs, an omnibus which does net. obtain its motive power from an internal-combustion engine. There will be no Parisian " pirates " as in London.

The last journey across the city was a funeral procession in which tears and laughter were intermingled. At noon the last of the horse brigade left Place S. Sulpice for unlovely Villette on the north-east extremity of the city. A group of motorists decided that the disappearance of the horse should he marked in a, fitting manner. Consequently, about a hundred cars, varying in nature from Alpine chars-à-bancs to light two-seater runabouts, united on the Place and followed the two-horse bus with its wreaths and mourning trimmings right across the city to the external terminus. None of the orthodox signs of mourning had been forgotten, but although they wore bands of crape and had their cars bedecked with wreaths, there was something about the mourners which suggested a superficial sadness. The journey over, the last horse-driver was invited to drink to the eternal repose of his regretted vehicle, and at the lunch which iollowed the prosperity of the motor omnibus was not forgotten.

Cab-rank Telephones in Paris.

In connection with nearly all the cab stands in Paris there is a police box in the nature of an improved sentry box, at present used as a meeting place for policemen on their rounds, and in which police messages can be left. It has been decided to fit all the boxes with a telephone connected to the public service, and to leave a policeman permanently on duty at these points. The public will thus have the opportunity of calling up the police officer and asking him to send a cab to any required point. This service can also be used for getting in telephonic communication with the nearest policeman in ease of urgent necessity. At the outset one police box in each of the 80 districts into which Paris is divided will be equipped in this way, but at a later date it is intended to apnly it to every police box in the city. The innovation has the ad vantage, from the municipal standpoint, of putting no extra charge on the rates, the State authorities covering the entire cost of the telephone installations. The police authorities are of the opinion that this scheme will reduce the number of cab drivers driving around slowly in search of fares and thereby hindering normal traffic. [We have something to say with regard to cab-rank telephones on page 419.—ED.]

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Locations: Paris, London

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