PHASES OF PASSENGER TRAVEL
Page 68
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Notes on Every Aspect of Coach and Bus Development.
AN IMPORTANT AMALGAMATION IN SCOTLAND.
Two Railway Companies and the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., Join Forces for the Co-ordination of Rail and Road Travel.
,TN an article commencing on page J. 14 of our issue for last week and dealing generally with the policy of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Co. in regard to road transport, we referred to negotiations which were proceeding between that company and the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd. We are now able to state that a new public company has been registered to acquire and to take over, as a going concern, the business hitherto carried on, with headquarters in Edinburgh and branches in various parts of Scotland and England, by the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd. The L.M.S. and L.N.E.R. companies are both interested in the new undertaking.
The first directors will be Messrs. A. J. Paterson (chairman), J. R. Gray, J. A. Lindsay, C. H. Urmston, W. .1. Thomson, James Calder and J. H. Follows. The last-named is the VicePresident of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Co., and he will have the duty of caring for the railway companies' interests.
The capital of the new company is
£1,800,000 in shares of each, 1,000,000 of these being 6k-per-cent. preference shares and the remaining 800,000 being ordinary shares.
The old company was registered in 105 and carried on an engineering and ehassis-manufacturing business, as well as operating motorbus and motor-coach services—first, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and Dundee and, later. over a far wider area. The company has also hold contracts from the General Post Office for the conveyance of mails in and around Edinburgh. Since the end of the war many smaller concerns have been absorbed and several associations have been made with other important undertakings. The company has also developed parcels traffic. The amalgamation vvill give the railway companies an interest in more than. 500 vehicles, these comprising rolling stock of many modern and efficient., types, and a better co-ordination'' between the railway services and the road services of the company is sure to result from the arrangement. It is understood that Mr. W. J. Thomson will continue as general manager of the new company and that, so far as possible, the existing establishment and star organization will remain undisturbed.
An interesting feature of the Memorandum 'of Association is a clause which gives the company the right to carry on the business of 'transporting passengers and goods by services in the air and, for that purpose, to purchase, manufacture and manipulate aeroplanes, Airships and other aircraft.