Operating Aspects of
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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
This Bedford bus, equipped with a Perkins Leopard II oil engine, owned by Mr. E. J. Jamieson, of Sydney, New South Wales, has run over 140,000 miles without a major overhaul and is still going strong.
NO CONCESSIONS FOR THE SERVICES
EIGHTY-ONE out of 85 municipal LLitransport authorities do not grant concessions to members of H.M. Forces. Two other corporations have withdrawn concessions.
This statement was made by Sheffield Corporation's transport general manager when the transport committee was considering applications for special travel facilities for men of the fighting forces.
In view of the undertaking's financial position, the committee has not granted the applications. If desired by the military authorities, the general manager will consider whether the officers in command of the units stationed in Sheffield could be supplied in bulk with tickets at reduced rates.
Glasgow Transport Committee has also refuSed similar concessigns to the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the Air Defence Cadet Corps. Councillor W. Stewart Reid, who has just completed his term as convener of the transport committee, stated recently that the undertaking was likely to end the present year with a heavy deficit.
He pointed out that the supplementing of wages to transport employees on national service was costing the department in the region of £50,000 a year. The increased cost of petrOl and oil fuel amounted to about £20,000 a year, and the new income-tax rate would add another £30,000 to the expenses of the department, In addition, there was a decrease in revenue resulting from the black-out and the restriction of services.
NEWCASTLE'S TROLLEYBUS APPLICATION REJECTED
APPLICATION by Newcastle-onTyne City Council to borrow £29,688 towards the cost of 20 new trolleybuses, estimated to cost £40,352, has been rejected by the Ministry of Transport and the transport committee recommends that the money be paid from the Trolley Vehicles Renewals Fund.
The letter from the Ministry points out that £24,000 was taken from last year's profit of £94,079 for the relief of the general rates, and it would appear that surpluses accrued from day
to day to meet the whole cost of the trolley vehicles. The Ministry, therefore, could not support the application.
The letter refers to the contract placed by the city council with Northern Coachbuilders, Ltd., Newcastle, for 13 double-deck bus bodies, and states that the Ministry is not satisfied that the city council was justified in passing over the lower tenders submitted, and would not, in any event, have been prepared to sanction a loan of £16,830 as applied in respect of these bodies.
COSTS MORE IN THE DARK
4EMBERS of Aberdeen Taxi Hirers' IVIAssociation now charge fare-and-dhalf between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
BUS COMPANY'S GENEROUS GESTURE.
rr-HE 2,000 married employees of the 1. Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., will continue to receive threequarters of their normal wages after they have been called up.
GLASGOW IS PATRIOTIC
ft/TORE than 10 per cent. of Glasgow's 1V19,657municipal transport employees have joined the armed services. or have been called upunder the Militia Act; the number affected is 1,100. It is claimed that this -is a record figure.
CUMBERLAND BUS ACQUISITION
IT is announced that the Caledonian 10mnibus Co., Ltd., of Dumfries. has taken over the Lochivar Motor Services, Ltd., of Carlisle. The latter concern has been operating a bus service in North Cumberland for the past 15 years, whilst the former operates services in the south-west of Scotland and in North Cumberland.
MORE BUS-SCHEDULE REVISION IN LONDON
REVISED schedules were, on Wednesday last, introduced on 32 further bus routes in London. All bus routes serving Central London, except seven, are now running on new wartime schedules, which are designed to make the most advantageous use of the restricted fuel allowance and to provide regular services throughout the day.
FIRST' BRIGHTON PRODUCER-GAS BUS
A PRODUCER-GAS bus was run on demonstration on November 16 by the Brighton Hove and -District Omnibus Co., Ltd.' It is an A.E.C. 52-seater, powered by a converted Gardner oil engine and equipped with producer-gas plant based on the GohinPoulenc design.
A feature is the ingenuity that has been displayed in accommodating the plant. The bulkiest components are housed under the staircase, with the result that there is nothing in the appearance of the vehicle to reveal anything abnormal about it.
According to reports, its performance is satisfactory, and it can run one day on 5 cwt. of selected small-screen Welsh anthracite. The fuel cost is estimated at ld. per mile.
HINT OF HIGHER BUS FARES
POSSIBILITY of fares revision, as a
result of of petrol charges. was referred to by Mr. R. G. H. Hunter, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, passenger secretary of A.R.O., in an interview last week. Mr. Hunter said that fares ere based on running costs, which had increased tremendously since the war started. In addition to increased prices of petrol and oil, other costs, such as tyres, spares, electrical gear and maintenance, had increased.
While some services had been reduced as much as 40 per cent., there had been no proportionate reduction in overhead charges. Unless there was some revision in fares it would be impossible to continue on an economic basis.
NO LATER BUSES FOR NOTTINGHAM
MOTTINGHAM Corporation bus seri vices are not to be extended beyond the present 10 p.m, time limit. Councillor G. W. Plackett, who has been re-elected chairman of the passenger transport committee, xplains that in view of the Regional Transport Commissioner's inability to grant further petrol supplies,, the committee has decided that it would not be in the public interest to cut day-time services in order to run late buses for the benefit of cinema and theatre-goers.