Restrictions Off Municipalities ?
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SOME of the restrictions under, which municipal operators worked should be abolished, declared Mr. H. J. Thom, South Wales Licensing Authority, when he spoke at a dinner held to celebrate the golden jubilee of
Cardiff Transport Department. He mentioned the operation of excursions and tours in this connection.
"This is a difficult question which will require a great deal of thought before it can be settled," he said. "The only alternative is that fares will have to go up, and if they go up much further I am certain that the resistance from the travelling public will be so strong that the increases will not produce the revenue required."
Mr. A. Manley, chairman of Cardiff Transport Committee, said that the department was among the few municipal undertakings that were making a profit. This year's addition to the fuel tax put an extra £20,000 on the department's annual costs, whilst wage increases cost another £25,000. It was nevertheless hoped that a small profit would be shown at the end of the current year.
The undertaking's operating costs to-day were three times greater than before the war, yet fares were only about 50 per cent. higher. He hoped that expenses were now reaching their peak and that the next application to the Licensing Authority would be for a reduction of fares.
MAKESHIFT SAFETY MEASURES_
TEMPORARY means for relieving 1 traffic congestion and removing danger spots would have to be adopted because of the prohibitive cost of new roads to by-pass Doncaster, Newcastle and Darlington, said Mr. J. G. Taylor, north-east divisional road engineer of the Ministry of Transport, at Leeds, recently.
He suggested that the 30 m.p.h. speed limit in built-up areas be further reduced. "The extension of that principle to villages where the accident rate is particularly high would be a useful. contribution to the cause of public safety," he said. "A limit of 15 m.p.h. imposed in a Hertfordshire village, however irksome, has been fully justified:1
MOBILE SHOPS ON PETROL CHASSIS
MOBILE-SHOP bodies on petrolcngined chassis are now being made by Smiths' Electric Vehicles, Ltd,. Gateshead-on-Tyne. The company is jigged and tooled for the production of such bodywork on Karrier Bantam chassis and is able to supply vehicles quickly and, it is stated, at attractive prices.
The body shell is standard, but interior fittings can be adapted to suit a variety of trades. One customer has issued a repeat order for seven mobile bakery shops on N.C.B. battery-electric chassis to' bring his fleet of such vehicles up to 17.