Motorbus World.
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Newt contributions are invited : payment unit be made on p-ublication.
We are unable to include our usual table of traffic returns in this issue owing to the fact that we have to go to press early this week.
The traffic return figures for the London General Omnibus Co., as given in our issue of the 15th inst., include, for both the current year and for the year 1910, the receipts for the Great Eastern Motor Omnibus Co., which is now amalgamated with the L.G.O. Co.
Recent Mishaps.
We regret to have to record this week the occurrence of several serious motorbus accidents ; in one case, one of the Chatham-Maidstone vehicles skidded outside the village of Sandling and turned over in a field after crashing through a hedge. Fortunately in this instance the passengers escaped with nothing more than a severe shaking.
The other serious mishap occurred on River Hill, near Sevenoaks, to a motorbus belonging to the National Co. The machine had to be driven off. the road in order to avoid a traction engine and a horse vehicle which obstructed the run down the hill. The motorbus was driven into a field, where, owing to a very considerable drop, a number of the passengers received more or less serious injuries.
We do not think there is any occasion for alarm because of the incidence of these recent serious mishaps : it is well to realize that comparable events of this nature
almost invariably, through some extraordinary chance, occur at about the same time.
London Fares.
The London General Omnibus Co. does not propose to increase its fares during the Coronation period on the ordinary services, but very considerable alteration to the normal routes will be necessitated on account of the closing of many of the main thoroughfares to ordinary traffic for extended periods. Special sight-seeing motorbuses are to be run on four or more routes at increased rates for the benefit of those who wish to obtain a view of the decorated and illuminated streets before and after the actual ceremony. No unotorbuaes or other vehicles will be allowed in the streets during the illuminations.
Motor Coaches, Ltd.
Principally with the view to the holding of some brief ceremony in connection with the inauguration of the new central showrooms which have been acquired by Motor Coaches. Ltd., a gathering of Press representatives took place on the new premises on Wednesday of last week. Examples of the lighter productions of the motor department of the Thames Ironworks, Shinbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd., were on exhibition in the showrooms, whilst several good small-scale medels of the heavier types of maehines produced at the Greenwich Works were also in evi. deem. The principal officials of Motor Coaches, Ltd., together with several of the prominent members of the staff of the parent company, afforded their guests ample information about the many types of construction with which the company has built up its enviable reputation. Shortly after noon, one of the motor chars-a-bancs belonging to Motor Coaches, Ltd., was filled with visitors and the party was taken direct through South London to the Crystal Palace. Mr. Arnold F. Hills, the devoted chairman of the Thames parent company, received the party in one of the special pavilions which his company has erected in the grounds of the Crystal Palace for the Festival of Empire. We were glad to notice that, although Mr. Hills is still incapacitated physically, he is now enjoying very considerably better health, and he addressed the assembled representatives with considerable vivacity and his accustomed geniality. He explained the object of the gathering and stated that the commercial-vehicle department of the Thames Co., principally by way of its offshoot Motor Coaches, Ltd., was likely in future to become of very large proportions. He enumerated the various services which are at the present time being satisfactorily performed in many of the south-coast towns in this country, and he also intimated that a further large development was imminent, on account of large General Post Office contracts which had been recently concluded for deliveries in and around London by Motor Coaches, Ltd.
The latest departure in connection with public-service road transport, for whioh this company is revonsible, is probably that in which a number of motor vehicles, modelled closely on the lines of the old road coaches, will be employed. We understand that in the near future a small fleet. of these will be available in and around London or the conveyance of pleasure parties over a zone extending 100 miles in all directions from the centre of the metropolis.
Motor Coaches. Ltd., besides its primary concern for the oneratinn of vehicles on the road, will also be responsible for the ,narketing of the whole of the motor .output of the Thames Ironworks. Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd.