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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
EMPLOYEES ASK FOR STRIKE BALLOT
DELEGATES of bus employees of the Scottish Motor Traction Co.,
Ltd., meeting in Edinburgh, last week, rejected a wages agreement, offered by the management, and sent a request to the national passenger committee of the Transport and General Workers' Union to recommend the general council to grant a strike ballot.
The decision to reject the offers made by the management was reached after the proposals had been reconsidered by.
branches throughout Scotland. It is understood that approximately 5,000 employees voted against acceptance and 2,000 for. About 1,000 members did not vote.
The conference, which was presided over by Mr. J. Sherry, of Carluke, and which was attended by Mr. John Veitch, Scottish area secretary of the Union, and Mr. Arthur Gee, Scottish passenger group secretary, passed the two following resolutions:— " That this conference of delegates, in view of the figures before it, requests the national passenger committee of the Transport and General Workers' Union to recommend the general coun
cil to the Union to grant a ballot on strike action at the earliest possible date."
" That, in the event of a strike ballot being granted, this conference recommends the members to vote for strike action."
ACTRESS AS HOST AT " RIBBLE " BALL.
HOSTESS at the annual ball of Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., to be held at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, on March 29, Will. be Miss Catherine Lacey, well-known West End actress. Miss Lacey played the lead in "Family Reunion," and was formerly at the Liverpool Playhouse.
THE TROLLEYBUS—THE VEHICLE OF THE FUTURE.
ALTHOUGH Glasgow Corporation has refused to experiment with trolleybuses, Councillor Victor D. Warren, who first put forward the proposal to introduce trolleybuses, is still an unrepentant advocate of this form of transport.
He returned to the attack last week, at a meeting of the Corporation Transport Sub-Committee on D`inance and Works, when he gave notice of his intention to move, at the next meeting, that Parliamentary Powers be sought, in the next Corporation Provisional Order, to enable the corporation to construct the bodies of trolleybuses, and assemble the chassis and electrical 1132 equipment, at the Coplawhill works of the transport department.
Commenting on his proposal after the meeting, Councillor Warren said that the corporation had been successful in the building of modern highspeed trams, and he was convinced that it would make an equally good job of the modern trolleybus. He thought that the Coplawhill works, instead of constructing trams, should be kept up to date and allowed to manufacture, what he considered to be, the vehicle of the future—the trolleybus.
CLELAND DEMANDS BETTER BUS SERVICE
WITH a view to improving the bus YV service, on the Cleland to Glasgow route, a conference is to be held between the Sixth District Council of Lanarkshire and Lanarkshire bus authorities. If the latter do not make the necessary improvements, Mr. James C. Welsh, M.P., for Bothwell, may be asked to raise the matter in the House of Commons.
A PROPOSAL THAT WOULD BE RUINOUS
TfIE recent action taken by the
HE
Traffic Commissioners, in separating the local excursions from the period tours, in respect of the number of vehicles allowed to coach operators, was not received with the concern which the actual working of the scheme is arousing. At a sitting of the Commissioners, last week, Mr. W. Hartley, of Manchester, told the Commissioners that their proposal, in his case, would be ruinous.
On his behalf it was pointed out that the returns of Mr. Hartley's traffic, already in the hands of the Commissioners, sioners, showed that, if they; had to be any splitting of the vehicles between the two services, it would be exactly the opposite of what the Commissioners suggested. In their letter to the applicant they had specified that two of his three, coaches would be licensed only for the day, half-day and evening excursions. It would be impracticable to conduct Mr. -Hartley's extended tours with one vehicle. If there had to be this splitting, as a general condition, two of the three vehicles should be allowed on the extended tours.
The Commissioners deferred their decisionpending another investigation of the returns.
BUSES TO REDUCE PARKING PROBLEMS.
AS no private bus concern has established itself in Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia, the authorities have been debating for some years whether to inaugurate a municipal service. A plebiscite of ratepayers, taken last year, showed a considerable majority in favour of such a scheme, but the danger to its financial success lies in the extraordinarily high ratio of cars to the number of inhabitants, which, indeed, has no parallel outside certain centres in the United States.
The authorities, therefore, called in the general manager of transport for Johannesburg, Mr. L. M. Barry, to advise them, and he has now recommended that a system of oil-engined buses should he established and that, later, when the urban and suburban routes have become more stabilized, the alternative of trolleybuSes should be considered.
The number of people who drive to work in their own cars has created a troublesome problem in Salisbury, and it is hoped that a municipal bus service will help to solve it.
HARMONY PREVAILS IN SUNDERLAND.
WHEN it was announeed at a meet ing of the Traffic Commissioners, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, last week, that a settlement had been reached between Sunderland Corporation, the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., and the Sunderland and District Bus Co., Ltd., regarding fares and services in the Sunderland area, Sir John Maxwell, chairman of the Commissioners, expressed satisfaction. It was gratifying, he said, to find that harmonious feeling and spirit of common sense which prevailed.
" NORTHERN " EMPLOYEES ACCEPT WAGES OFFER.
AWELL-ATTENDED meeting of employees of the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., at Gateshead, on Sunday last, decided to accept, without prejudice, an offer of one halfpenny an hour wage increase for bus conductors, and one extra day's holiday a year all round.
At a meeting, held some weeks ago, the men had demanded id. an hour increase for conductors and all grades • of inside workers, id. an hour for drivers, and a fortnight's holiday, all round, instead of one•week.
Whilst the men agreed to accept the operators' offer, it was agreed that the negotiating committee should seek a further interview with the directors of the company for further concessions, and, failing a satisfactory settlement, the committee was empowered to terminate the agreement.
"CROSVILLE" AND RAIL CO-OPERATION
S0141E interesting facts concerning the ../services of Crosville Motor Services, Ltd., were disclosed by Mr. W. J. C. Taylor, general manager, at the annual staff dinner, held at Chester, last week. He said that the company was the first to be associated with the L.M.S. Railway and had earned a good name for co-operation. With few exceptions, it had not been opposed in the traffic courts by the railways. Transport services were a vital necessity to the country and it was unfortunate when different organizations connected with it could not agree and work together.
Arrangements had been concluded whereby the Crosville concern carried parcels that were conveyed, part of the way, by the L.M.S., and the railway, on its part, took parcels which were carried part of the way by the com
pany's buses. This was an arrangement which other transport companies did not enjoy.
By the end of the company's financial year, in April next, the concern's buses would have travelled 33,000,000 miles and carried approximately 95,000,000 passengers. At present 995 buses were in service, a number which would soon exceed 1,000.
TRANSPORT UNDERTAKING TO RELIEVE THE RATES.
meet a rate deficiency, Burnley eFinance Committee proposes to transfer £9,000 from the bus and tram account and £1,000 from the transport department.
MUNICIPAL BUS SERVICE FOR MOTHERWELL.
AUNANIMOUS decision to investigate the possibilities of establishing a municipal bus service for the burgh, was discussed at a meeting of Motherwell Town Council, last week.
Speaking in support of a 'notion "That the town council consider the question of establishing a bus service within the burgh "—made at the February meeting, Bailie Charles Donnelly said, that no doubt he would be told. by objectors to the motion, that he bad " missed the boat," and that the present time was inopportune to make such a proposal, which ought to have been made when the old tram system was abandoned.
The town council, in his view, was now operating successfully many services for the citizens and he saw no reason why it should not establish an equally successful municipal bus service.
There were many glaring defects and inconveniences in the present service, he said, the shortcomings of which, so painfully manifest, would be relieved by a municipal service.
Ex-Bailie -Crichton, seconding the motion, also declared that he had been informed of many complaints from several areas.
There was no amendment and the motion was carried unanimously.