The "Royal" at Shrewsbury.
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This issue is the first of our two Royal Show numbers: it contains an explicit guide to the commercialmotor and allied exhibits, the first instalment of a special article, written by the Editor and translated for him into the Welsh language, the first portion of a special and exclusive article in regard to the L. and N.W.R. road motors, and other matter which we have reason to believe will help to create fresh interest in the movement to which this journal is devoted.
The article in Welsh is not completed in the present issue. for the very good reason that we shall next week be giving a considerable amount of space to the subject of agrunotor developments. The concluding portion of this article, which will appear in our next issue, will also be concerned with that branch of our subject. The portion which now appears is concerned {lily with vehicles which are suitable for use on roads, whether for passenger or goods purposes.
Our ayrangements for the mailing of several thousands of missionary copies, to all parts of the Principality, have been made with the utmost care and foresight, with a view to stirring up interest where it. lacks causation, or bringing about i conseinillation in the shape of accessions to the ranks of owners where it is dormant or indifferent. We have been supplied with up-to-date lists of names for some e0 Welsh townships, and we have pieked out from those lists representative traders who certainly should concern themselves with modern transport methods. Over and above these potential users in country towns and important villages, we have had added to -our lists a carefully-revised selection of hotel proprietors and jobmasters. They, of course, are ree-e directly interested in motorcabs, motorbuses, nen or coaches and motor chars-à-banes. Lastly, but by no means least, our lists comprise•the best tenant farmers and estate owners in the J counties of Vales, and that of Salop.
The Importance of Access by Road Motor to a Competitive Railway Station.
We have frequently insisted upon the advantage which ownership of a commercial motor confers upon any trader who is virtually in the hands of a railway company at a non-competitive station. There are large numbers of stations in the United Knigdom, and particularly so in certain manufacturing and industrial areas -of England, which are sufficiently isolated. togive a practical Monopoly to the -company of whose system that station is a part. The desire to put goods upon rails at a competitive station remained, until some 10 years ago, an alternative that was wholly incapable of realization. Whilst short-distance traffic was sent exclusively by horses, long-distance traffic was at the, mercy of the single railway company.
We observe that the old-standing argument of relief by means of road motors has again been advanced for consideration at a meeting of the Kidderminster Chamber of Commerce, and it is therefore evident that not everybody who should be interested in it has yet appreciated it. In a district such as Kidderminstee, where important manufacturers find themselves in the hands of a single railway company, and additionally in a very hilly area, escape at the feet of the horse is out of the question. The motorvao or motor wagon can, however, come to the aidmf parties who are so unfavourably placed, and can enable them to make connection with acompetitive station.
• We hope that readers of Tux COMMERCIAL MOTOR who have become supporters of this journal at recent dates, and in particular those who have commenced to buy it only since we last advanced the argument to which we are referring, will weigh it in relation to the circemistaisee,s in which they are individually placed. It will often pay them handsomely to incur an inclusive expense of, say, 4s. 6d, a ton to send a load 10 or El miles, and that is a sufficient charge to cover both the outward journey, for the purpose or placing the goods on rail at a station from which competitive rates rule, and the run back to the factory without load, in all cases where a vehicle of four tons capacity is used.
Trips by Char-a-bancs at Half the Parliamentary Railway Fare.
The " all in " cost of running a 30-seated or lare-er motor char-h.-banes is seldom in excess of ls. Fer mile, despite, the high rates which are of necessity charged by insurance; companies for the live-load riskE involved. This figure presumes fairly-continuous employment during six months of the year, and some employment during the remainder of the year. It is sufficient to cover -all the usual outgoings under every head of expenditure, inclusive of maintenance and depreciation. In those cruseS; which we admit are numerous, where the owners of motor chars-ft-banee prefer note=to use their vehicles during the winter months, and do not convert them into motor lucries in order to earn revenue by carrying inanimate loads at times, we arc well satisfied that a maximum " all in " cost of Is. 6d. per mile run represents the, worst eases from the owner's point of view A mean working figure for the operation of a motor ehar-a-bancs may be taken as Is. 3d. per mile, so far as the larger typos are concerned. Some owners do much better, but others have to encounter abnormal conditions, whilst others again are lavish in their expenditure upon the maintenance of costly bodywork, fittings and redecoration. We are content to adopt the figure of lie, 3d. per mile run as one which does not err by being too low, -and it is easily reckoned, on the basis of 30 seats, that this earning is yielded, -when travelling full, on the basis of d. per passenger-mile.
The Parliamentary railway fare in this country is Id. per passenger-mile, and the days when only one train a day, and that a slow one, was available at that so-called low rate, will be well within the recollection of many of our readers. Railway companies have, of course, become wiser with experience, and all thirdclass fares are in these days based on the one-time: Parliamentary fare, including those by the best, expresses. That change, however, took long years for its accomplishment—certainly not less than 50 years. The standard rate up and down the country, for travelling by motor char-a-bancs, is still, roughly, per passenger-mile. With all seats full, on the aver• age of 30 seats per vehicle, the yield is 2s. 6d. per mile. Some proprietors gat exceptional rates on special occasions, and go as high in their charges as 2d. per passenger-mile. When they do this, and the occasions are by no means infrequent, the profit return to them per mile run is indeed a very handsome one, as may be gathered from our earlier obser vations upon running costs in this category. The great majority of owners is content with the ld.-permile basis, and a small minority has already made a practice of giving the equivalent of half that rate for parties which definitely book their vehicles full for stipulated mileages. Char-a-bancs travelling, at a profit to the owner, is quite feasible, after less than 10 years of development, at half the Parliamentary railway fare. That fact is undeniable, and it furnishes outstanding testimony to the claims of modern self-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles upon the attention of capitalists and financiers, as well as upon established hotel proprietors and jobmasters. We ask new readers to consider its bearing upon possibilities which lie within their reach, and we must conclude by pointing out that orders cannot be executed in a day. Instructions for the 1915 season are being given in some cases even this early.
Proposals for Waiting Spaces on Highways for Tramcar Passengers.
The L.C.C., through its representatives on last year's Select Committee on Motor Traffic, made great efforts to obtain special treatment for tramcar passengers as users of the highway. Mr. Kellaway fought. very hard, both with members of the Committee and with witnesses, to secure recommendations or admissions in favour of creating waiting areas for tramcar passengers on the public highway. That was, to put it briefly, the effect of his obvious desire.
Other tramway committees, of which we may quote those at Glasgow and Nottingham, are apparently desirous thus to elevate users of tramcars into a unique position of monopoly, to the great disadvantage of other users of the highway. These pro-tram
car pleaders evidently forget that the legal status of a pedestrian on a highway is fundamentally limited to his right to pass along it ; he has no full right to be on it, or to stay on it. Were it otherwise, we might have a multiplicity of traffic difficulties, in the shape of hawkers, Punch-and-Judy shows, and what not, settling down upon the roadway, and even upon the tramway.
Our objection to proposals for special facilities for tramcar passengers is not due to any degree of callousness in respect of the limbs of such passengers. They obtain a very large measure of consideration, notwithstanding the extent of the obstruction for which they are accountable, from 99 per cent. of the drivers of ordinary wheeled vehicles. They create at the present time, without any special or statutory right in their favour, an obstruction of real magnitude. Were such tramcar passengers ever to be artificially protected by a, by-law of the kind which we have in mind, and for which a specious demand is being formulated in certain places, large areas of the highway would thereby be turned into the equivalent of waiting rooms, and yet another abuse of communal rights be chargeable against the rigid and obstructive tramcar. We do not want waiting queues in the streets. Tramcar passengers are sufficiently protected, in common with other users of the highway, by the Highways Act of 1835, and special legislation in their favour would, in London at any rate, most certainly fan the growing feelings of enmity against this particular system of passenger transportation.
Mr. Albert Stanley's Knighthood.
The honour which the King has conferred upon Mr. Albert H. Stanley, managing director of the Underground Electric Railways of London, Ltd., and its allied undertakings, including the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., will be a source of gratification to many readers of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR. It has been our pleasure to know Mr. Stanley fairly closely since Sir Edgar Speyer and his assodates acquired London's premier motorbus concern, and we recognize in him a man who merits the compliment which has been paid him, and through him the passenger-carrying industries for which he is so largely responsible.
A knight-bachelorhood, strangely enough, is the one honour which, apart from certain orders, the King can confer, in the present state of our country's constitution, other than on the advice of his ministers. In this ease, however, we are well satisfied that both the regal and ministerial minds were at one.