Manchester's swift o-m-o progress
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• Extensive operational research into oneman working, which has been carried out by Manchester City Transport, was described by Mr. James Hall, divisional superintendent (south) at a meeting of the Institute of Transport (North Western Section) on January 14. They now had 222 doubledeckers on o-m-o, the changeover having in, round figures reduced costs by £1,000 per vehicle per annum. Working of o-m-o double-deckers at the same schedule speeds as double-manned vehicles was necessary if the undertaking was to remain viable.
Over a period of five years their efforts had been directed towards development of self-service by the public wherever possible. At the outset passenger loading delays were serious but these were countered by the introduction of new designs of vehicles and equipment. Extensive preparatory work rendered the undertaking ready to go into operation as soon as the agreement was reached with the unions.
Drivers of o-m-o double-deckers received 25 per cent above the NJ1C rate. One effect of the substantial increase in earnings on these duties had manifested itself in some reluctance to undertake overtime.
There was no suggestion that the older members of the staff were not just as efficient on these duties as the younger element and the department had experienced no difficulty in obtaining sufficient volunteers to maintain the numbers for driverconductors. Initially they had thought in terms of four hours instruction for the conversion of a driver from conventional to dual duties but they had now settled for three periods of four hours each. Since the implementation of the programme there had been for various reasons a staff loss of 680 conductors--under the new programme it had been unnecessary to replace them. The older double-deckers were less popular with the drivers, apart from the 'fact that with these vehicles the pay packet was lower.
Various publicity campaigns had been carried out in order to introduce the new plans to the public and a further approach was now being prepared with the object of obtaining greater passenger co-operation. The corporation fare structure based on 6d. Is and Is 6d was created in order to facilitate o-m-o for double-deckers. Mr. Hall said that so long as a change-giving facility was available many passengers would not go to the trouble of obtaining a 6d piece to operate some of the systems. Recently they had introduced the Johnson multi-coin fare boxes which gave flexibility in the matter of change and appeared to result in increased speed of passenger loading.
Questioned regarding token schemes, Mr. Hall said that substantial discounts were offered to the public by Continental on dertakings when this form of fare collection was used. As a personal view he felt that in order to get passengers interested in buying tokens in advance it would probably be necessary to offer a concession of the order of 30 per cent.