PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
HOW THE PASSENGER VEHICLE HAS PROVED ITS MOBILITY.
The Value of the Motorbus and Motor Coach for Pleasure and Business Purposes.
A S a link between places, the mobility of the motor vehicle has been proved. Articles in this journal have shown the ease and interest with which long journeys have been accomplished solely by motor omnibus. To those who stay close home it perforMs no less a service. Whether towns are grouped' or scattered, the service performed by the commercial motor vehicle is the same and peculiar to itself.
From centre and suburb, it takes, in the form of a passenger-carrying vehicle, the townspeople to the countryside; on its return journey it brings the villagers into town. It is necessary to live in the country to be able to realize what this village to town service means. Not only does the town provide a cheaper market than the few shops of a village, it offers bright shop windows, the kinema theatre, an occasional lecture, hall, whist-drive or other public gathering.
B40 Does not the railway serve these same needs? The handiness of the bus makes the difference. It invariably runs through the village which it serves, and in town its parking place is, in most cases,, central. These two things cannot be said of railwaratations, -which, especially in the country, are sometimes a mile or more from the place they represent. Besides, the journey by road is more interesting, and the fare for the same journey lower than that charged on the railway.
In the West Riding one maticea examples of the handiness of the road vehicle still more pronounced than those quoted. A certain lorry brings milk to a dairy in town—and takes baek a load of
singing mill-girls. Colliers. coming up into the sunshine, find the faithful Ford waiting at the pithead to take them within convenient distance of their homes. Your household coal is not bagged as in London ; the " twiner " loads it in bulk
at the colliery and shoots it on to the pavement at your house, when, for a small consideration the driver will " put it down" for you. Then, since leisure comes to those who Work, you can plan your country walks so that the bus will carry you quickly to the outskirts of the town. In an industrial district like this, where the towns lie within a few miles of one another, one soon learns the local geography. Taking Wakefield_ as a centre, you can go by regular bus service to Morley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield (two routes), 13arn.sley, Pontefract (three routes), Normanton and Castleford, and from these places (having their own transport services) you may follow the road where you will. Barnsley, to gi vs only one .instance, links you up with Rotherham and Sheffield.
In the summer, motor coaches throw their tracks across country to many -a charming resort : Harrogate, Enaresborough, York and Scarborough, for example, and even (for short tours) to the Lake District. And, on a winter's evening, although yon dwell anmng the chimney stacks, the bus will take you to where the poplars mach up toward the stars.