PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
Page 27
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
COACHING PROVING POPULAR ON TYNESIDE.
Removing a False Impression of Road Touring. Coaching Runs Well Patronized Over the Whitsun Holidays.
/TINE Whitsuntide holiday served to prove in a convincing manner that the motor coach is becoming very popular in Tyneside districts. There was a time, not so far distant, when this type of vehicle was regarded askance by all bat a very small proportion of the population of this vast industrial neighbourhood, who looked upon it as a means of giving pleasure to the more rowdy element of travellers. With a primer 'realization of the status of the motor coaching movement, this state of affairs has now changed, and Tynesiders, as a whole, are finding that the motor coach provides an eminently respectable inode of travel equal in many respects to first-class railway travel so far as comfort is concerned, arid excelling it from the standpoint of viewing the country under congenial conditions.
The erroueous impression ereated the first place was doe to .aertain owners who paid little or no regard to the prestige of the business, and it has occupied some years of careful attention to the-. requirements of the public on the part of responsible owners thoroughly to educate the masses to the advautages and pleasure of road touring. The Whitsuntide holiday offered evidence of the increasing numbers of people of all grades and classes in Tyneside districts who now participate in road tours by motor vehicle.
Messrs. Galley, of Newcastle, recently instituted a comprehensive programme of road tours, and their Whitsun programme proved very popular, a feature being the number of circular tours in troduced. The principal runs during the holiday were : (1) Barnard Castle, Middleton-in-Teesdale, High Force and -AV:ten (for which a fare of 11s. 6d. was charged); (2) to Jedburgh, Kelso, Coldstream and Wooler (fare 12s. 6d.); (3) to Bamburgh and Seahouses (for which 8s. 6d. was asked), and two shorter rues at 6s. dd. each to Rothbury and Allendale. In addition, the company ran an extended tour to Blackpool in connection with the carnival in the Lancashire centre.
The Northern General Transport Co--, Ltd., also displayed enterprise in connection with the organization of tours during the holiday period, their chief tours including one to Middleton-inTeesdale at a return fare of 8s., an attractive circular tour to Alston at, the same price, and another run to Otterburn for 6s. 6d., the fates being based upon a rate of approximately one penny per passenger per mile. The company also instituted a programme ol extenJed tours, and one which was most popular was that to the Lakeland districts. This tour figures in the evnpany's /924 arrangements as a weekly excurdan, the charge, inclusive _of first-class hotel
accommodation, being £3 1.58. This tour will be undertaken on no fewer than 17 occasions during the present season.
Giber Tyneside owners operated tours daring Whitsun which made equal appeal, and they received encouraging patronage Jr thei efforts, and most of these runs will be maintained throughout the season. Private party work, which forms an important side of the coaching trade in Newcastle and adjoining districts, was also carried out on an extensive scale, in addition to the advertised tours.