Yorkshire Traction's Profit Down
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LTHOUGH the revenue earned by .1-1 the Yorkshire Traction Co., Ltd., in 1961 was higher than in the previous year, increases in all the major items of expenditure resulted in the profit before taxation being £23,000 less than in 1960.
At the company's annual general meeting the chairman, Mr. Raymond W. Birch, said their fuel tax bill for the year was £165,000; the government's continued and sharpened discrimination against the bus industry and the recently settled claims for wage increases made it only too clear, he said, that another application for increased fares would be necessary if heavy cuts in services were to be avoided.
Over the past six years, said Mr. Birch. the company had reduced their duplicate mileage by 740.000 without hardship to passengers; this had been achieved by replacing 32-seat single-deckers with 44seaters and 56-seat double-deckers with either 63or 73-seaters, with the result that the fleet's seating capacity had increased by 15 per cent. since 1955. But the limit of reduction in duplicate mileage had just about been reached so that if existing trends continued they would have to consider reducing time-table frequencies. They would also have to consider the problem of their many unremunerative services, especially those where revenue was not even enough to cover the cost of drivers and conductors. Mr. Birch said the company's policy of increasing seating capacities had been helped by the introduction of the new maximum body dimensions; three new 47-seat coaches of 36 ft. by 8 ft. 24 in. overall size, bought for the company's express services, provided even more leg room between the seats than their existing 30-ft. 39-seaters. Yorkshire Traction would shortly be taking delivery of seven 54-seat single-deck buses of the new length, some of them for routes where low bridges made double-decker operation impossible.
Travel in London
A BOOKLET "Passenger-mileage by 1—.V Road in Greater London," prepared by the Road Research Laboratory. has just been published by H.M.S.O., price 3s. net. It analyses passenger movement by all forms of road transport, the figures relating to surveys conducted in 1958 (and some in 1954) and there is a considerable amount of statistical detail of value to p.s.v. interests.
Burlingham to Duple
THE name of the northern company within the Duple Group has been changed from H. V. Burlingham, Ltd., to Duple Motor Bodies (Northern), Ltd. The business will continue as before with the same directorate and management.