Railway and Tramway Motorbuses.
Page 13
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Case for the Independent Self-Propzlled Road Vehicle as an Auxiliary.
Upwards of 270 self-propelled vehicles for passenger conveyance are now in regular daily service for railway companies and tramway undertakings in the United Kingdom. This total includes public-service vehicles of all types, whether double-deck, single-deck, composite (i.e., goods and passengers), chars-a-bancs or coaches, but it represents less than five per cent, of the openings which must receive attention at the hands of the managers before they can justly claim to have taken all necessary steps in the direction of traffic development. There was, as little as five years ago, no immediate prospect of the early or successful application of the road motor as a reliable adjunct to railways; whilst the then apparent inferiority of its claims for recognition as a possible alternative to the electric tramcar resulted in extensions of the railed track along not a few roads from which tramway companies have now to deplore uaremunerative returns. The years 1903-1906 have witnessed improvements in construction that must improve the prospects of any district where common roads exist, and it is our intention, in the brief space that can be found in a single issue of this journal, to set forth the essential facts connected with that period of progress and to-day's position.
For Railway Service.
Those who have the necessary inside knowledge of railways assure us that no system or combination of road vehicles can become the equivalent of a branch line, since both the weight and value of the traffic at even a wayside station is such as to forbid its retention on the highways when a certain volume has been reached, and we are prepared to endorse that view from our own experience. Competent railway authorities, after setting out with the belief that they might rely upon services of road motors to do their work high up into the scale of traffic where branch lines had previously been regarded as the only method of transport, are now of opinion that sucli a scheme breaks down in the mineral and other " heavy " classifications. it is not, therefore, as an effective alternative to branch extensions that we put forward the claims of the motorbus, but rather as an unrivalled auxiliary for the cases where : (a) the needful income to support a branch line is unobtainable ; (b) the passenger traffic, with its attendant circumstances, is limited to seasons ; (c) two branches require a road link.
A very large proportion of existing stations, both on main and branch lines, are notoriously a charge on the companies, and the poor returns from them go to reduce the profits from other sections and centres ; yet these intermediate stations in the country possess an enormous potential value for their owners, and it is impossible to close them. On the other hand, there are an infinite number of villages which can support amotorbus service, but which can hardly hope to develop a sufficient goods traffic—that paying branch of railway enterprise—to justify the construction of a new branch. The motorbus, with a by no means negligible parcel and goods' carrying capacity as one of its attractions, is the most promising means to hand for the gradual improvement of traffic at these country stations, and the growing toal of such radiating services cannot for much longer be ignored by railway men who have not taken action in the matter. The functions of the motorbus in railway service are, principally, the cultivation of traffic where plans for line extensions are impracticable or not yet ripe, and the general augmentation of returns from such other stations as are not otherwise provided with the necessary conveniences to encourage their more frequent use by members of the travelling public. Tourist and holiday traffic can, too, as has been proved, to cite only a single instance here, by the G.W. Railway Company in the Cornish Riviera, be increased materially by notification of up-to-date facilities for conveyance from and to the railway.
For Tramway Service.
is less than fifteen months Since Mr. Edward Manville, M.I.E.E., read his excellent paper, entitled " The comparative merits, of Electric Tramcars and Motorbuses," at the Royal Automobile Club. The writer, who, by invitation, opened the discussion on that occasion, disclaimed then, as he had done many times before, and as he does once again now, any desire to attack tramway interests or to decline to recognise the sphere and usefulness of electric tramcars. We were, in common with the many leading engineers and -business men in the railway, tramway, and motor-omnibusworlds who took part in that heroic, full-dress debate, glad to observe a nearly unanimous agreement upon the point of normal choice, qua economy, between electric trarnears and motorbuses. The average of the conclusions of all the experts placed this at a 15-minute service in each direction, and it can be accepted as settled in all minds that theeconomy of the motorbus is unquestioned where the traffic fails to support a 25-minute service in each direction. With. an infrequent service of this kind, the incidence of capital charges for an electric tramway system may reach 6d. per car-mile, or even more.
The motorbus is obviously able to make up its daily mileage along a number of routes, as no question of additional capital expenditure arises, and it is also safely able to traverse roads with such steep gradients that no electric tramcar could be. sent along Lhem. The experience at Bath. is a case in point, and we reproduce the profile of Lansdown Hill, as a striking example, herewith. Another important factor is the high point-to-point speed of a motorbus : this is partly due to its mobility, and partly to the fewer stoppages in proportion to its seating capacity.
We now proceed to deal with certain particular aspects and phases of motorbus traffic in town and country. An interview with the Chairman of Thomas Tilling, Limited, is.
our only considerable reference to London, because the case ▪ of the Metropolis is in so many senses a special one, but Mr.
• Till ing 's views, in spite of bitter competition with the Lon .. • don County Council's electric tramcars and the extraordinary uncertainties of police action, show that the motorbus can stand up to its work under adverse running conditions. The proposition, to-day, is essentially different from that of 18991903, when manufacturers had but little road experience to guide them in design or strengths of materials.
The continued extension of the G.W. Railway Company's services, to which we next refer, is one of the most instructive pieces of evidence in favour of the motorbus, and there is little occasion for surprise that other British railway companies are correspondingly active if on a less scale : this movement for the adoption of motorbuses as feeders to railways, and, in the opposite sense, to get people away from them, promises to become universal with our great companies, in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, indifferently, and the same policy should be extended to other countries very rapidly.
The important question of operating costs, it will be observed hereafter, is confined, apart from the incidental passages in our report of Mr. Tilling's views, to three tabular statements. These figures are comprehensive, detailed, and reliable, but they are sufficiently favourable to allow of additions for contingencies by any cautious manager : they are, of course, incapable of realisation in the absence of competent management and supervision. Takinginto account the n-merous particulars of operating costs which have been entrusted to us for our confidential information, the majority of them confirm the figures that are published, and one of the most gratifying features is the continued improvement in successive years since 1903, no less than 2d, per mile having been saved in respect of tires alone, for the customary expense under this head is now reduced from 4d. to 2d. or less, whilst maintenance charges do not show an increase after the second year.