The Advance of the Bus in Municipal, Circles.
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THIS is the period of the year when the annual reports of municipal passengertransport departments are published and already the results for the financial year ended March 31st last, dealing with the operation of motorbuses, trolley-buses and tramcars in many important centres, have come to hand. The statistics contained in these official documents are worthy of close perusal, because they reveal markets which exist, or which will ultimately arise, for the use of buses. In the main, the reports produce unmistakable evidence of the declining popularity of the tramcar and of the growing use of motorbuses and trolley-buses.
Some of the most progressive local authorities have already discarded tramcars. and in other centres the traffic receipts on such vehicles are diminishing so rapidly that tramway officials are at a loss to devise ways and means for countering the steady advance of the motorbus and trolley-bus. Even in those centres where protective measures have been taken, the tramcar is a waning force in meeting local requirements and competitive buses are securing a gocidly share of the available traffic, often despite the handicap of higher charges.
Tramway systems, which have in the past materially contributed to the relief of local rates, are, in some instances, now finding. it difficult to cover necessary commitmEnts, such as sinking fund and loan charges, and even where useful profits are being recorded the cost of the renewal of equipment and the modernizing of rolling stock is acting as a drain on resources and offsetting an etherwise satisfactory state of affairs.
Considerable additions are being made to municipal bus fleets all over the country, even in those centres in which pro-tramway officials are in control, and the question must arise as to how long it will be before the tramcar becomes a relic of the past. So far as London and certain of the largest cities are concerned, it would, perhaps, be unwise to hazard a guess, but in the ease of many provincial centres we can predict marked changes in passenger-transport methods during the next few years.
The latest annual Municipal reports contain facts and figures which encourage this belief. It is certain that the wealth of information they contain and the striking comparisons which can be made by studying the statistics will not escape public notice, so it is very unlikely that a system of passenger transport will be allowed to be perpetuated which, whatever its most ardent protagonists may say to the contrary, is definitely losing ground as a vital national facility.