L OOKING through the annual reports of the British Transport Commission
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over the past few years, one cannot fail to appreciate that the greatest annual profit is always made by the same company; and surprisingly enough the undertaking concerned is not one of the largest of the Tilling and Scottish Omnibus groups. Of the 31 separate B.T.C. bus companies, the greatest profit is made by Central S.M.T. Co., Ltd., Motherwell. In four years this company has made at least more than £500,000 net profit per annum, and in 1956 the figure was nearly Elm. It is therefore interesting to consider the reasons why this medium-sized company, with just over 600 vehicles, should show such an amazing and consistently
high yield. .
Central. S.M.T. Operations can be divided into three distinct sections. First', there are the frequent routes from Lanarkshire into Glasgow serving such important towns as Wishaw, Motherwell, Hamilton and East Kilbride. 'In acklition to these routes to Glasgow there are intensive cross-town routes in Lanarkshire itself, Ad last there are the services running into Glasgow from the opposite direction from Balloch and Helensburgh.
Relic of the Past The Lanarkshire area services are a relic of the old Lanarkshire Tramways and until recently vehicles, although to all intents owned by Central S.M.T., still carried the fleet name "Lanarkshire.". The various routes into Glasgow either terminate in Killermont Street, beside Buchanan Street Station, or at Waterloo Street, close to Central Station. At these two termini there exist proper bus-station facilities and all departures are from covered bays. A few services from the Bellshill area, some jointly with Scottish Omnibuses, terminate in Carlton Place, on the south side of the river, whilst the new service 180 from East Kilbride via Busby terminates in Clyde Street, as both the main stations are already overcrowded.
Working into Killermont Street from Lanarkshire is service 52 from Coalburn via Hamilton and Uddingston, with a daily 30-minute frequency. Superimposed upon this service are routes 53 and 55 from Netherburn, which follow a common route from Larkhall and Hamilton inwards, also cI6
with a 30-minute frequency. Common to the route inwards from Hamilton is service 56, with a 15-niinute frequency from Shotts, but these journeys terminate. at Waterloo Street. The combined routes give -a total of
eight journeys per hour from Hamilton via Uddingston into Glasgow.
• The same can be Said for other journeys from Wishaw,
Motherwell and Hamiltoninto• Glasgow. by way.. of Cambuslang or Bridgeton Cross Or Rutherglen or Bellshill. From Hamilton via Cambuslang and Bridgeton Cross there
is the 63 route from Eddlewood with a 20-minute frequency. Then from Hamilton itself via Cambuslang and Tolleross therels the 62 service with a 15-minute frequency. Added to this are the two routes from Newmains via Bridgeton Cross, this time with a 10-minute service.
There is also another 10-minute service from Newmains, but after reaching Cambuslang it runs via Rutherglen. The • result is that from Newmains inwards to Glasgow there is a regular five-minute frequency, the route via Bridgeton Cross running into Killermont Street and those via Rutherglen into Waterloo Street.
All these frequent services-as indeed they are when it is seen that Hamilton has over 30 departures per hour on a Saturday afternoon into Glasgow—together with local routes in all the main Lanarkshire towns are mainly served 'by vehicles based at the large Clydesdale garage in Hamilton. This garage, built at a cost of £80,000 some seven years ago, houses 100 vehicles. Other Central S.M.T. garages at Carluke, Motherwell, Wishaw and Harthill also provide vehicles, but the Hamilton depot is by far the most important, For example, Hamilton provides seven vehicles alone for the Shotts-Glasgow service, the first departure on this service being at 2.52 a.m. to Shotts. A total of over 85 scheduled vehicles are • provided—by Hamilton daily.
Also in-this area are the-greatly improved services to the new town of East Kilbride, Where a 07,000 garage for up to 70 vehicles was brought into use in the latter part of c17
1957. Not only are local routes operated in East Kilbride itself, but there is the 30-minute service (15 minutes on Saturday) via Busby to Glasgow (Clyde Street) taking just a little over 40 minutes. In addition to these there are services 70, 71 and 73 running into Strathaven, which pass through East Kilbride. These run from Killermont Street every 30 minutes. There is also the 77 route from East Kilbride to Killermont Street on a 30-minute frequency, the timings on all routes giving a regular 15-minute service, increasing to every 10 minutes on a Saturday, into Glasgow.
Bus Every 31Minutes The other great area of Central S.M.T. operation is from Glasgow out along the Clyde coast. There are four services to Balloch and the 134 route to Helensburgh. All five cover a common section as far as Dalreoch, just beyond Dumbarton, and this gives this long section of route from Glasgow a regular frequency of 17 departures per hour, or a bus every 31minutes over a section of route 15 miles long. Of the four routes to Balloch, each is common as far as Alexandria Fountain, where the 132 service turns ,right, crosses the River Leven and runs via Jameston, whilst the 133, 135 and 136 routes are common to within I mile of Balloch, and then take separate routes through new housing estates. All vehicles for these routes are housed at the Gavinburn garage at Old Kilpatrick, which is almost halfway between Glasgow and Balloch. The first departure is at 4.41 a.m. to Glasgow and the last bus at night does not return until 12.20 a.m., a 20-hour service being run each week-day.
In addition, the Old Kilpatrick garage provides vehicles for town services in Alexandria, Dumbarton and the ex-Glasgow Corporation routes • into Clydebank itself. There is also the 10-minute frequency on service 130 from Parkhall to Glasgow. This service is operated by doubledeck vehicles and enters Glasgow by way of Great Western Road.
Of all the services operated by Central S.M.T., the salient features are the frequent timings which are maintained throughout the day. Outside municipal operation there must be few companies, if any, which run so many frequent services. One may agree that where there are such large industrial centres as Hamilton, East Kilbride and Clydebank, it is only natural to assume that timings will be frequent. This leads up to the conception that the high profit made by Central S.M.T. stems more from the area in which they operate than from efficient managenient.
c18 But it would be quite wrong to dismiss the high profit figure as -being merely because of the area of operation. There is strong evidence tp show that the high density of travel has been created by Central S.M.T. over the years and that they are now reaping the benefits of sound policies put into operation over 20 years ago.
By introducing frequent services over their routes Central S.M.T. did much .to make the local People "bus conscious." Let us take, for example, the town of Alexandria in the Dunbartonshire area, it is served by the regular five-minute service from Glasgow and until a few years ago this was sufficient.
New housing estates have since been built and now there are two local services. These are the 88 from King Edward Street to Haldane and 89 from Napierston Farm to Tullichewan Drive.
Both these routes are covered by the Glasgow service, so in effect they are like duplicates for the through service running over a small section of route. With a frequency. of 30 minutes each way throughout the day, Central S.M.T. have got at the root of providing any type of town service—regular • frequency. It is not suggested that frequency makes people travel, but in an area where people have been " taught " to use their public transport; and where bicycles hardly exist, such services are well patronized.
Central S.M.T. are also outstanding in that they have a high propbrtion of double-deckers to single-deckers. Apart from corporations, there is not one large undertaking which has a ratio of 543 double-deckers to only 82 single-deckers. The trend is towards double-decker working on all routes. No new single-deckers have been bought for some years, and there are no low bridges making it necessary for single-deckers to be used, although, strangely enough, all the double-deckers are of the low-bridge type. Of the 543 double-deckers, there are 434 Leylands, whilst the others are Guys and Bristols.
Classified Use
The Bristols are of the Lodekka type and are used on all main services_ Leyland P.D. models are run on all the routes into Glasgow from Lanarkshire, whilst the 50 or so Guy Arabs are used on the local cross-town routes around Hamilton and Wlotherwell. The remainder of the 111 Guys are single-deckers used on the Glasgow-Parkhall and Duntocher services.
There are also a few Guy luxury coaches with impressive, if heavy, Alexander bodies, and then there is a fleet of 10 Duple-bodied Bedford coaches for private hire. These are painted in an attractive two-tone blue livery instead of the normal deep red and cream of the stageservice buses.
The Leyland vehicle has been the backbone of the Central S.M.T. for many years and has proved well suited to their services. Over 400 P.D. vehicles have been introduced since the war and, although three different bodybuilders have supplied bodies, the buses have almost been identical apart from recent deliveries from Alexander. The actual numbers are: Leyland, 194 bodies; Northern Counties, 145; and Alexander, 128.
Excursion and tours work does not figure highly in Central S.M.T. operation, tour work in the Glasgow area being done by W. Alexander. Publicity has recently been centred on private-hire operation, and the new Duple coaches have proved ideal for the work. The current time _able carries many advertisements and reminders, all designed to make the public aware of the facilities provided for them to hire a coach for party outings.
Fares-Still Low
Although fares have increased during recent years, they are still low compared with those charged over similar distances in other parts of he country. Coupled to this is the .arge discount given to purchasers of return tickets. The single fare from Glasgow to Balloch is 2s., but the return fare is only 3s. 2d. These fares reflect a history of competing with many local operators and the railways. On the majority of routes running into Glasgow there are Ora lel rail facilities, and, it Speaks highly of Central S.M.T. management that they have been able to capture so much traffic. People travelling from terminal points such as Helensburgh and Balloch into Glasgow still favour rail, but it is the intermediate passenger who uses the bus. The outcome of the introduction of electric traction on the local Glasgow rail services will. be watched with interest.
A feature of all the routes is that Central S.M.T. employ conductresses almost exclusively on their vehicles. The majority of them are in their early twenties, and most efficient conductresses they make. This has always been the case with Central S.M.T:, even before 1939, and is certainly a relic of difficult days when women could be paid lower wages than men. In their smart unifortns these girls have proved quite capable of handling the toughest of Clydeside workers. Setright machines have always been used to facilitate fares collection, and 10-journey weekly tickets are in use, but these must be purchased in advance at numerous local depots and agents. The Setright Speed Models have been specially adapted to suit company methods. Insert-type return tickets are still used and they are -3riced by insertion in the slot usually reserved for weekly tickets.
There are also certain practices which deserve mention as being unusual compared with other large companies. Children up to five years old are carried free compared with the normal age limit of three. Children up to 14 are carried for half fare, but are expected to give up their seat in favour of any full-fare paying passenger who may be standing.
What of the future-will Central S.M.T. still be able to show a handsome annual profit? Only time will answer the question, but if they do fail it will not be because the company have begun to operate inefficiently. Closely related routes, good interchange facilities and a high frequency cannot do anything but maintain loadings, and it is doubtful if the new electric train services in Glasgow will abstract any great volume of traffic.
The coming years will no doubt see a further decrease in the number of single-deckers, but it is the terminal facilities in Glasgow itself which could bring about more efficient working. The two terminals at Clyde Street and Carlton Place are highly unsuitable. There are no shelters at either, and they are far from the centre .of Glasgow. Killermont Street and Waterloo Street bus stations are good, if rather_ cramped. They were both built in the middle 'thirties and are now congested.
Light-signal Control At Waterloo Street an inspector is employed to regulate the vehicles into the station in their correct order of departure, which is so frequent that coloured-light signalling was installed many years ago in each bay to control the flow of vehicles. When built, each departure bay had sliding lattice-work shutters separating passengers from the buses, and before each bus left the conductress was expected to close the shutters. Unfortunately, the lattice safety shutters and roof supporting the pillars on each platform reStricted the width to such an extent that 8-ft.-wide vehicles had difficulty in entering each bay. The shutters have now been removed.
At Waterloo Street and Killertnont Street the stations are Oared with other vehicles, from Western S.M.T. at Waterloo Street and W. Alexander and Scottish Omnibuses at Killermont Street. To improve efficiency, all Central S.M.T. departures should be centred on one place, but improvement cannot be expected for many years.