The Motor Omnibus World.
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The East Dane Parish Council, which meets at Cinderford, is desirous of facilitating its local travelling facilities. The secretary of the Cinderford Tradesmen's Association is taking active steps in the matter.
A new service of motor omnibuses has just been inaugurated between Coshocton (Ohio) and Goshen (Ind.) The inhabitants of the district have long wanted a direct means of communication between the two towns.
The Oregon Suburban Auto. Company lately put some motor buses on the route between Independence and Salem. If the enterprise is successful it is intended largely to increase the number of vehicles and to open out new districts as they are required.
Our contemporary, "The Public Health Engineer," has to be added to the list of Municipal and Local Government journals which have reprinted our paper on the subject of " The Motor Omnibus in Relation to Public Health." This appeared in our issue of July 27th.
The Bangor City Council is considering the question of instituting a motor omnibus service between Bangor and Ebenezer, via Pentir arid Rhiwlas, and on other routes. A sub-committee has been appointed to go into the whole question of improved communication with localities lacking a railway service. The clerk of the council is Mr. W. Huw Rowland.
The Lancashire Steam Motor Company, Limited, of Leyland, has 75 omnibus chassis now in course of construction. This company's London business is being well looked after, so far as omnibuses are concerned, by J. S. Critchley, Limited, of 251, Tottenham Court Road, London, W., which company co-operates with Mr. Henry Spurrier, junr. in their construction, but Mr. Spurrier will continue his Lon
don office, as heretofore, for the L.S.M.Co., Ltd.
A service between Bradley and Raven sthorpe is proposed for the purpose of linking together the Huddersfield Corporation tramways and the British Electric Company's system from Dewsbury. This project, if carried out, would provide through communication by road between Huddersfield and Dewsbury via Bradley, Ravensthorpe and Shepley Bridge. It is also under consideration to link the B.E.T. line from Dewsbury to Gomersal with the Bradford Corporation tramways at Birkenshaw.
"The Yorkshire Daily Observer," in connection with the recent International Tramways Exhibition in London, states that one of the most notable features was the remarkable evidence of the motor omnibus as a rival to the tramcar. We do not agree with the statement that the motor omnibus is a rival to the tramcar, because each has its proper spheres of usefulness. The crux of the matter cannot be too strongly insisted upon, and it is that he tramcar is usually inadmissible unless a 12-minute service in each direction can be supported by the traffic. In the case of the motor omnibus, services can be successfully instituted with a much less frequent service on any particular route. "The Western Mail" reports that a company is about to be formed with the view Of establishing a daily service of steam cars along the coast from Aberystwyth to St. David's, with supplementary connections to Goodwick and Fishguard, Letterston and Haverfordwest, Cardigan and NewcastleEadyn, and to Abcrporth. It is rumoured that the capital of the company will be ;6 I 2 , 0 .
The town council of Teltow, a Berlin suburb, is supplementing its defective railway accommodation with the capital by means of an electric motor omnibus service. This connects the market place with Zehlendorf, a station on the lecal line. Although Berlin's suburban railway reaches out some thirty kilometres, it does not touch Teltow, which is but ten kilometres or so from Berlin, and though the main line passes through it, trains are few and far between. The new omnibuses will carry 18 passengers.
Mr. Peter McGuffie, of the Wootton Hydro, Wootton, near Liverpool, will be pleased to receive particulars of motor omnibuses for consideration in connection with a contemplated service to link that place with the Wavertree terminus of the Liverpool Corporation tramways.
The latest delivery of a Leyland-Crossley chassis is to Mr. C. jennery, of g, Victoria Parade, Muswell Hill. Messrs. Corben Brothers, coach builders, of Richmond Road, Twickenham, whose business as omnibus body builders appears to be developing rapidly, have just finished the vehicle for the road.
Any comments on the position of the London Road Car Company or the London General Omnibus Company in respect of their writing off capital, until recently represented by horse-drawn omnibuses, have no bearing whatever upon the financial position of newly-formed motor omnibus companies in whose balance sheets such figures cannot appear. At the same time, pessimistic criticisms which are passed upon the position of older omnibus companies should carry very little weight when it is remembered that the horses are immediately realisable and that the vehicles already have been, in the majority of cases, written down to less than one-third of their original cost. Tillings, Ltd., especially, have written down largely.
Messrs. Straker and Squire, of 9, Bush Lane, E.C., were the first firm of motor omnibus manufacturers to become Associates of the Society of Motor Omnibus Engineers.
The Wyke Regis Parish Council has passed a resolution of thanks to the Great Western Railway for the omnibus service to that village from Weymouth.
J. E. Hopkinson and Co., Ltd., of Cromer Street Works, King's Cross, N., has secured the whole order for the supply of tyres to be fitted on the omnibuses of the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd.
Leeds Corporation has found that its order for two Ryknield omnibuses has not resulted in as early a delivery as had been hoped. The great pressure of work at the Burton works of the Ryknield Engine Company is the cause of the slight delay.
Lord Stalbridge, in reply to a shareholder's question at the recent general meeting of the London and North-Western Railway Company, assured those present that the directors had no intention to be behind the age in reference to the use of motor omnibuses.
At the recent half-yearly general meeting of the Isle of Wight Railway Company, the chairman, Mr. H. F. Tahourdin, stated that the local rates were equal to five-eighths of a one per cent. dividend. He supposed this was to enable other people to run against them with motor omnibuses!
There were to3 omnibuses in service on Monday last in London, these being divided between the following routes in the numbers stated :—Cricklewood and Marble Arch, 9; Peckham and Oxford Circus, 17; Finchley and Oxford Circus, 3; Cricklewood and Elephant and Castle, 23; Cricklewood and Law Courts, to ; Flarnmersmith and Oxford Circus, 24; Surbiton and Ealing, 3; Brixton and Oxford Circus, 1; St. Pancras and Victoria, r; Kilburn and Marble Arch, I; East Finchley and Charing Cross, I ; St. John's Wood and Victoria (" Victory "), 6; Putney and Piccadilly Circus, 6. The London Road Car 'Company with 30 buses leads the London Motor Omnibus Company by one vehicle. Some of the daily papers inserted a paragraph on Monday to the effect that "Thirty new motor omnibuses were put on the London streets on Saturday." We are at a loss to know where they obtained this information, which is quite at variance with the number that have been put on the London streets to the 22nd instant inclusive. Of course, several of the London omnibus companies have received delivery if further chassis from the makers, but they cannot be said to be on the London streets until they have been fitted with their bodies, licensed by the Police, and put in regular daily service. The last two weeks have witnessed several changes in the routes. On the 14th instant, the omnibus belonging to Mr. j. A. Garle, which had been plying for about four weeks between Barnes and Piccadilly Circus, was withdrawn from that route, and put on between Kilbulm and Marble Arch, where it seems to be doing very successfully; and in the same week a new route was opened by the Associated Omnibus Company between East Finchley and Charing Cross. This route has long been worked by the Camden Town Association, of which the Associated Omnibus Company is a member, but the motor omnibus has reduced the fares 33 per cent.
Monday last witnessed the opening of two new routes. The first is to be known as the " Victory," worked by the London Motor Omnibus Company, between St. John's Wood and Victoria Station via Baker Street, Park Lane, and Grosvenor Place. Six of the, familiar Manes-Daimler omnibuses have been diverted from the "Vanguard " route and are now running on the new route with their names altered to "Victory." On the same date the London Road Car Company withdrew its " Gerniain " buses from the Haminersmith and Oxford Circus route, in order to run them between Putney Town and Piccadilly Circus via South Kensington Station and Brompton Road. The object of this diversion, we are afraid, is not to study the convenience of the public, but is due to the fact that the" Germain "omnibuses have experienced some difficulty in ascending Notting Hill, and it was imperative to find an easier route, but the vehicles don't take the hills in Piccadilly at an acceptable pace or with the desired smoothness.