WHEELS OF INDUSTRY.
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'The wheeze of wealth will be slowed by all difficulties of transport at whatever points arising, as a carriage is by the roughriless of the roads over which it runs."—John Beattie Crozier.
The Railway Companies See the Minister.
On Tuesday of last week the Minister of Transport received a deputation from the Railway Companies Association, which desired to impress upon the Government the serious losses which are being incurred by the railways owing to the increase of road traffic.
Goods traffic was, being diverted to the roads in greater, and increasing quantities, and as regards passenger traffic, omnibus servioes praetically run parallel with many of the railway 'lines, the rosult.being the leski to the railway minapanies of a large number, of ,'shortdistance passengehs. -The companies are nbt in-any way' 'hostile to the development of toad traffic as such. They ex
• pressed the opinion; however, that rood motor carriers 'contribute only a relatively small sum to the construction and maintenance • of the. 'highways as coin • pared with the contributien of the rail • way. companies. The reply of the Minister was non-committal.
Transport for Retail Distributors.
A very important section of the Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors has been formed to deal with store transport and despatch, to consist of the transport directors and managers of the various firms who are members of the association. At the inaugural meeting Mr. T. Ernest Jackson was elected chairman pro tem., and after an opening address a general discussion followed as to the scope of the work of the section, amongst the items of which will be costs of delivery, the pooling of experience, transport by horse and by Motor, area distribution, equippage, usage, etc.
The first subject that will be debated will be "Comparison of Usage and Costs of all Vehicles," and we understand that meetings will be held at the offices of the Association, 125, Pall Mall, London, S.W.I., at 2.45 p.m. on Tuesday afternOODS, but we have not yet been informed as to the frequency of the meetings.•
New Morris Models.
Morris Commercial Cars, Ltd., Foundry Lane Works, Soho, Birmingham, have just introduced five new models, three being refuse wagons and two travellers' broughams, the former being Mounted on the Morris 1-ton chassis, andthe latter on the company's 12-cwt. chassis.
The three refuse wagons, which are arranged for end-tipping, are known as models A, B and C respectively, and they are of similar design so far as the driver's cab, the main portion of the tipping body and the tipping gear Itself are concerned, but the actual design of the tipping body is modified in each case to meet a large number of requirements.
Model A is priced at 1260 and has a body lined with sheet steel. A detachable frame is fitted over the body and it carries two semicircular sliding steel shutters, which may be opened or 'dosed.. at will ; a hinged tailboard witti suitable locking bar is fitted. Model
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B, which is marketed at £245, has a strong waterproof canvas covering over the detachable frame of the tipping body, whilst model C, which sells at the same figure, incorporates four waterproof canvas coVers mounted on spring
rollers in place of the, semicircular sliding steel shutters used in model A.
The two other new models are broughams intended for the use of travellers and they are marketed at £240 each
Two-seater Taxicabs for London.
It may now be stated that the Home Secretary intends at once to make regulations for the licensing of two-seater taxicabs in Loudon. This action follows upon the -expiry of the period of a month which the owners of existing taxicabs were allowed in order to enable them to submit a scheme for the reduction of present fares, and which was not productive of acceptable proposals in that direction:
Minister of Transport to Attend Parade Luncheon.
The Minister of Transport, Lieut.-Col. the Right Hon. Wilfrid W. Ashley, M.P., will he the principal guest at the parade luncheon at the Savoy Hotel on Saturday, March 27th, in connection with the 20th annual London Parade'of commercial vehicles organized by the Commercial Motor Users Association, which will be held in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Road Transport and National Economy.
Mr. E. S. Shrapnell-Smith, president of the Commercial Motor Users _Association, delivered an address at the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday of last week, with Mr. 0. C. Power in the chair. He referred to the question-el:deli had been put to'him by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as to whether five I-tonners would be more economical in highway costs than one 5-tonner. His answer had been that it would not be more economical.
He dealt with the whole of the road question and with the reasons for retaining the principle of the present segregation of the-elload Fund. He showed that our extensive road system costs only Id. per head of the population per day. More than '70 per cent. of the total expenditure on arterial roads out of the Road Fund had been forced upon Sir Henry Maybury in order to relieve unemployment. It was difficult, said Mr. Shrapnell-Smith, to comprehend why the cash surplus of £11,000,000 in the Road Fund had been saved up instead of being spent ; but it was certain that there could be no true surplus.
More Covered-top Buses for London.
The four covered-top • double-deck buses which have been run by the Loudon General Omnibus Co., Ltd., on route No. 100 during the past four months have now been transferred to route No. 11, and will continue to operate on this service for the time being. A further 50 buses of this type. are now practice ally ready for the road, and it is expected that these will shortly be in regular service. Altogether 200 coveredtop double-deck buses are to be constructed, and the company tell us that it is hoped to introduce them on to the London streets at the rate of about eight per week.
Improved Transport to the Isle; of Wight.
Greatly improved facilities for transporting motor vehicles to the Isle of Wight have now been proiAded by the Southern Railway. Hitherto vehicles , conveyed across from Portsmouth Harbour have had to he landed at Hyde, and owing to the fact that disembarkation could only be carried mit-at high tide the service hashed to be restricted to one crossing per day, and that often at most inconvenient hours. Now the company hairs, by dredging Wootton Creek scour Fishbouriae, just beyond Hyde, on the main road to Newport, made it possible for the tow-boats to land vehicles at a specialiconcretedSelipway at any time irrespective of the tide. The snew service came into operation on Monday, March 15th, and the rates for commercial vehicles are as follow:— MOTOR FURNITURE VANS, TRAILERS, MOTOR