NOTTINGHAM'S NEW MUNICIPAL GARAGE.
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The Organization Dealing With a Large and Growing Fleet of Motorbuses, Trolley-buses and Tramcars Now Centralized at a Depot Covering 21 Acres,
MHE municipal authorities at Not tingham have recently entered into possession of the new municipal garage which has been erected in the Carter Gate area of the city, and which forms one of the most completely equipped buildings of its kind in the provinces. It has been built to provide accommodation for most of the passenger-vehicle rolling stock of the corporation, which comprises motorbuses, trolley-buses and tramcars. The construction of the depot, upon a site centrally located in a district served by a new arterial road, has been rendered possible by the demolition of much squalid property, and, coincidently with the erection of a larger building, the latest transport appliances have been introduced, with the result that a central depot has been
obtained which in itself sets a bolder face to a private bus enterprise than has ever before been possible in Nottingham.
The policy of the responsible corporation committee had for a long time been one of extending the tramways, but to' the greater convenience of the public a more enterprising course is now being pursued: Mr. W. G. Marks, formerly of the .:Chesterfield Corporation passenger-transport department, has taken charge of affairs, and bus facilities are now being largely extended.
*The difficulty in relation to previous municipal garage arrangements, in Nottingham was that, apart from the Somewhat inconvenient situations of the depots, that at Trent Bridge, in the southern part of the city, had become quite inadequate for present-day needs. The other depots, which are used by -vehicles running in Nottingham's industrial and residential areas, are at Bulwell and Sherwood.
The expansion of the city in recent years and the possibility of the annexation of neighbouring townships and villages, has necessitated the provision of better facilities for the buses and tramcars housed in the larger depot, with the result that the use of the old Trent Bridge Station has now been restricted to subsidiary purposes. Only 25 tramcars are now housed there, the remainder of the space being devoted to workshops in which repairs can be carried out.
The site of the new garage, which is bounded by Stanhope Street, Chanvers Street and Carter Gate, presented many difficulties by reason of its irregular character. The ground covers 2iacres, and of this 1 acre have been devoted to the garage and an extensive range of offices for the staff, the remainder being utilized as a works. The new buildings, which afford room for close upon 200 buses and trams, are approximately 400 ft. long and 400 ft. wide. The large roller shutters which enclose the garage, as well as other contrivances which are installed, are all electrically controlled, and the lighting throughout is admirable ; the roof is built in six sections, all of which are fully glazed. From designs prepared in the offices of the city engineer (Mr.
Wallis Gordon) the building con tract. has been carried out by Mr. Thomas Bell, of Lamartine Street, Nottingham, at a cost of slightly over £100,000. As an indication of the progress which has been made since the private tramway company was acquired by the corpora tion in October, 1897, and electrically Propelled vehicles were brought into use. in place of horse-drawn ears, • it may be added that there are now 200 tramcars, 76 petrol buses and 12 trolley-buses in use. The committee ltas recently placed orders with the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., for the supply of 20 more buses of the latest type, for meeting the cost of which the Ministry of Transport is being asked to sanction a loan of £50,000. Apart from the accommodation at the new depot, space is available at Sherwbocl for 50 vehicles and at . Bidwell for 40 vehicles. The existing facilities will not, how eVer, be any too great in the event of the extension of the municipal boundaries, for which parliamentary powers will pro bably again shortly be made, the council's last application having been rejected mainly on the score of the opposition raised by the county authori ties. It is significant of the importance to the city of the municipal bus and tramway undertakings that from theeriod of the acquisition of the rights of the old private company in October, 1927, up to March of this year the total revenue earned was £7,327,984, of which the sum of £491,056 was allocated to the relief of the district rates.
. The county town of Nottinghamshire has a population of 265,000.