HOLIDAY-MAKING BY MOTOR COACH ON TYNESIDE.
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The Arrangements Made for Covering the Newcastle.Race Meeting, which Forms One of the Attractions of the Annual Week's Holiday in Tyneside
Districts.
JUST as Lancashire has its " wake " weeks, and workers in various other parts of the conntry,have their own particular annual holiday periods, so has Tyneside its established vacation, namely its Race Week, which witnesses the closing down Of all the important industrial works upon which the district depends for its prosperity for a period of seven or eight days whilst the workers enjoy to the full their somewhat restricted holiday.
Naturally the first thought of a vast majority of the population is to attend the races themselves, and this tendency was as marked as ever during the period of racing held last week. This event, held at Gosforth Park, some five miles out of the city, extended from Tuesday till Thursday, and it is doubtful if on any previous occasion road transport has proved so popular as a means of reaching the course as it did this year.
The holiday in every sense was an open-air, one, and motor coaching with itshealthful and beneficial_ advantages was found to be the most economical, arid most convenient method of obtaining the maximum of pleasure during the week.
So far as race traffic was concerned, the authorities in Newcastle again enforced their novel and extremely effi
dent form of control over the vast force of motor coaches and other vehicles a all sizes and kinds, which were used to
cater for race-goers. In all there were considerably over one hundred publicservice vehicles in daily use Over the period covered by the meeting, but due to the arrangement of a large central parking site, stretching back from. the loading-up point immediately opposite i the Central Railway Station n IN eNjlie Street for fully half a mile, road transport facilities worked with absolute smoothness.
The scheme of control is that the vehicles fall into a single line, and as the foremost vehicle takes up its complement of passengers, it moves off, and the coach or bus immediately in its reststhen takes possession of the loading point, and so on, By this means the stream of vehicles is kept almost constantly an the move, and as each coach returns Irons its journey, it takes up the rearmost position in the . line, and again works ite way to the front for another
journey. The effect is that the available business is equally allocated, and congestion is eliminated.
Prominent amongst local owners pai-ticipating in., this race traffic were the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., who had a special fleet of smart and comfortable single-decker saloon buses specially detailed for "Park " duty, whilst Messrs. G. Galley, Messrs Moon, and other owners took an active part in
the proceedings. A uniform charge of is. per head for the five-mile single journey was made, and whilst it would be extremely difficult to. arrive at any definite estimate as to the number of persons carried by passenger vehicles as compared with tramcars or the railways, it safely can he asserted that a large percentage of the total race-going fraternity used motors; for, in addition to vehicles plying from Newcastle, coaches from all places within a radius of between forty and fifty miles of the Tyneside capital carried further crowds of enthusiasts to the course.
Whilst the chief attraction during the holiday period was the race meeting, it was by no means the only one. Advertised tours to a variety of well-known north-country seaside and -country resorts were operated with success by the local coach owners at rates based on charge of ld. (in some cases slightly under that figure) per passenger per mile. Whatever might have been the general state of the coaching business in the north-eastern districts prior to the Newcastle race meeting, there can be lio gainsaying the fact that during that week, at any rate, coaching proved a remunerative business.