1924 EXPERIENCES OF A NORTHERN COACHING COMPANY.
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Outstanding Features in the Past Season's Activities. Influences which Have Reduced the Amount of Traffic Available, 'NOW11/4TOW that the coaching season has
run its course, this is the time of the year when motor coach owners have an opportunity of giving leisurely consideration to the fruits of their labours during the few months of concentrated activity which form the English coach season proper. Proprietors in the far North of Engsand, who are at present making this post-season perusal, find, in the main, that 1924 could have been worse, but, with true north-country caution,, they add that it might have been infinitely better. As a matter of fact the open C40 road has not claimed its normal share of patronage this year, this being very largely due to the powerful counterattraction presented by the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and also to alluring excursion rates offered by the railway companies in connection with the exhibition.
Without doubt the railway companies have offered more serious competition to road passenger interests this year than has been the case for a number of seasons. Furthermore, the weather has been anything but kindly disposed to the coaching fraternity, for few seasons
The comprehensive programme of daily •coach tours arranged to cover the period from the commencement of June to the end of September embraced regular excursions to all the most popular resorts of pleasure-seekers in the Tyneside district, and included in all eleven routes, over which a total number of 97 whole and
half-day runs were undertaken. On these tours between 8,000 miles and 10,000 miles were covered, whilst on the exterfded touring side a mileage of roughly another 10,000 was run on trips from Newcastle to the Lake District and to Scotland.
The following table shows the number of tours operated to each of the principal resorts, togather with.the prevailing charges for the season.
• These, of course, are entirely exclusive of private party work, of which the company had a large amount. A particularly popular venue for runs under the latter category was Whitley Bay, and parties conveyed to that attractive Northumbrian coastal town often necessitated the use of a dozen or more coaches. Fares for this district remained practically unchanged throughout the season, with reductions in isolated instaences, and, generally speaking, the prevailing basic rate was ogle of between
to lid. per passenger per mile, depending upon the length of the journey. as well as upon the class of roads to be negotiated.
As many of the passengers patronizing the various tours operated. by the company came from the more outlying neighbourhoods of Durham and Lad fairly lengthy homeward journeys upon the /completion of a tour, a srpecial point was made of guaranteeing punctuality on all runs, and the utmost importance Was placed upon the necessity for strict adherence to time-table throughout the season, a factor Which further strengthened the prestige of the company for reliability.
Extended tours were much more extensively operated than in past seasons, and at least one journey per week to the English Lake District was included in the programme, the total Lakeland tours for the season numbering seventeen.
• Edinburgh•was an almost equally popular destination for three-day excursions. In the case of both the Lakeland and the Edinburgh tours the inclusive charge was £3 15s. per head from Newcastle. An interesting and practical departure made by the company in cases where the weather was either wet or threatening at the commencement of the aun, was the substitution of comfortable 20-seater Daimler saloon buses far the normal 32-seater Daimler coaches.