HOW PASSENGER SERVICES HAVE DEVELOPED.
Page 61
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Discourse Upon the Methods of Large Operators in Building up Present-day Services Over Wide Areas.
EXPERIENCE has proved that the running of fully depreciated vehicles at cut rates provides a service Which appeals only to the less discriminating type of passenger who is not is not, provided, that the prospects be satisfactory. In the matter of Pus routes, we have in mind a certain important locality, which, at one time, was regarded as nnremunerative, and which kir several years was untouched by any of the big undertakings. This seemed a remarkable anomaly, and the writer happened to coinmeat upon it to one of the principals of a concern that had ample resources, which could be called upon, if necessary, to develop traffic in the district. The idea ()f running buses into this place was turned aside..
A few months after an operator entered' the field and made traffic where "before none existed. To-day, there must be 60 to 70 up-to-date motorbuses running in and Out of this centre. Other companies " have since worked in the area and the traffic is now considerable.
Many routes have to be nursed by • companies before they can he made to yield operating expenses, and very often that is a slow and tryingperied, which seriously affects the profits of .thriving services. Were it dot that large motorbus undertakings have, as their mainstays, a certain number, of heavily trafficked routes that show good trading returns, it is extremely doubtful whether there would have been the intensive progress which has been seen in the past five years. Local Services operated. within limited areas have. often proved obstacles to progress and co-ordination, That difficulty, has,, to some .extent,, been circumvented by absorption of the en-Miler organizatiorrs to permit of links being made .with remoter destinations and by the inter,running of -vehicles. Wherever the big. operating companies have superseded a small local firm which was working old-fashioned machines, they have always sought to break down local reserve by introducing inodern rolling stock, and te convince residents of. the benefits of the chaege, have in some cases widened the range of clomp fares and improved the miming times.