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ANY CHANCE FOR THE TROLLEYBUS ?

29th August 1918, Page 10
29th August 1918
Page 10
Page 11
Page 10, 29th August 1918 — ANY CHANCE FOR THE TROLLEYBUS ?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By "The Inspector."

INOTICE in a recent issue of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR that the Editor had felt constrained to revert to the question of the possibly more extended use of the trolleybus' to give it the appropriate name assigned to it by THE Cosimenenin MOTOR when its features were first discussed some years before the war. I had thought that the whole thing was dead, and I must admit to pleasurable satisfaction in arriving at that conclusion. I was never an advocate of this method, solely essayed by electrictraction interests to snatch from the motor -vehicle certain of its-specific advantages and to graft them

on to electric haulage methods. .

It will be recalled that some years before the war certain financial interests by no means unconnected with tramways, and admittedly viewing with alarm the rapidly increasing popularity of the motorbus, were actively endeavouring to develop this alternative system, and in a short while a very considerable number of proposals were made, which it was hoped would develop into powers established by Act of Parliament. The exponents of the trolleybus claimed various advantages for the suggested method and, I believe, with adequate confidence claimed to be able to prove their words as the result of practical running experience in the few instances where trolleybus systems were inaugurated.

They put forward, amongst other things, that such a scheme enabled considerable developments to be undertaken cheaply by tramway authorities in tentative fashion, with a view to testing the traffic possibilities of this, that and the other new route, and to avoid the alarming financial risks such experiments have often hitherto involved. The need for a special track with its prescriptive right of way and with its expensive road setting was done away with. The initial expensee.apart from the vehicles themselves, was only that of overhead trolley wires and standards which, if the route proved a profitable one, could continue to be employed in the event of a decision being reached to lay down fully-fledged tramways. Whereas, on the other hand, if there proved to be no money in the proposal, they could be removed at no very great expense.

All this, from a, tramway point of view, was quite good. It showed a means whereby further extensions of the tramway nuisance might be embarked upon without raising a deal of criticism with regard to the proposed expenditure—criticism which, as time went on, and as other means such, as that of the motorbus developed, would certainly become no less. But amongst the obvious objections to those novel proposals .was the comprehensive one that, apart from its providing atiother means of" consuming surplus electric-current output from the central generating stations, there was no tangible advantage /over the rapidly improving independent motorbus. On the other hand the disadvantages were quite obvious to those who were not tied to rail-bound, propaganda, and, indeed, the trolleybus examples which were available for inspection both in this country and abroad adequately confirmed the criticisms which were levelled at the various editions of the system which have been tried.

The machines themselves, carrying as they had to, heavy electric motors and heavy overhead trolley equipment, as a rule considerably exceeded the weight 'limits imposed by the Motor Car Acts. They neces a30 sarily, had to carry motors of considerable size and, therefore, of course, of weight, and even then their capacity for rapid acceleration and general handiness of control has been by no means remarkable. They were only flexible in direction in a partial sense, and the claim that they interfered very little with other traffic was not borne out in practice. The trolley pole imposed very distinct limitations upon the traffic manceuvres of the machine.

In short, there was nothing from the point of view of the vehicle itself which showed to advantage over and above the independent power-driven motorbus, although strenuous efforts were made 'by the protagonists of this new method to prove extreme economy of operation. They could not be used as doubledeckers ; they were tied to specific routes just as badly aswere the tramcars. They were certainly a great deal more obstructive than the independent machines, and it is questionable if they were legally entitled to the use of the routes as motorcars. In fact, they were neither motorcars nor tramcars, and I never yet lighted upon a sufficiently authoritative opinion as to their proper classification. I doubt whether it has yet been settled.

I think I should not be risking much were I to offer to lay very long odds that we shall hear very little more of the electric trolleybus unless, of course, it be in very special circumstances, and probably in out of the way districts.. It is to be remembered that the self-propelled machine has made giant strides during the past four years, and there are going-to be plenty of them available. The whole world has been educated to appreciate the motor chassis as a thoroughly effective tariff unit, and it will in future ,require a lot of persuasion to convince it that the motorbus is not a greatly improved method of public transport over and above the rail-bound or trolley-encumbered vehicle for highway use. I venture the opinion that we shall hear very little more of the trolleybus, despite the wishes of the tramway authorities to adopt this way of extension at a time when they know further powers of' tramway construction will be very hard, if not impossible, to obtain. The future is with 'the motorbus. The development of provincial and urban services when proper vehicles are again available, will most certainly be extensive. The trolleybus was a hybrid interloper in which nobody saw any good excepting the tramway exponents who were nervous of their own methods for the future, and hesitant and ignorant as to that of their rivals.

The Driver Owner and His Cab.

I have always held that the future of the motorcab trade was in the hands of the driver-owner, and it was only a few weeks ago, after we had read of the closing down of the biggest of London's motorcab operating concerns that I took occasion again to record my opinion that the methods that for many kb long year have been found to be satisfactory in the horse-tab trade would ultimately prove to be the most workable in respect of rnotoreab operation, subject, of course, to such modifications as appear to be necessitated by the introduction of the mechanical vehicle.

I noticed that the Editor in a recent issue of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR gave it as his considered opinion that the future was most certainly in theThands of the motor driver. Only in that way is it possible to retain the full interest of the driver in the services

which ho is supposed to be rendering and for which he is paid by the public. There are far too many opportunities for the driver to do either the public or the owning company a bad turn for public .companies' fleets ever to be entirely satisfactory. Similar attempts were made in the old days of the horsed cab, and it was found in the end that the individual owner was far and away the best proposal, or short of that, that the-man who hired a cab and for the time being was solely responsible for its operation and its financial success has a big pull all the time over the man who was merely an employee of a big concern. And that, mark you, was in the days when_ fares were collected from passengers who had only the vaguest idea of their legal liabilities.

The taximeter imposes considerable restriction on the cabman, but the tales that could be told of his ingenuity—in many instances nullifying this mechanical check—would make remarkable reading. Many of us remember the famous `' hairpin trick" in the early days of the taximeter, whereby the totalizing mechanism could at will be put out of action, and it was quite a long while before this ingenious insertion was discovered by the officials of a certain motor

cab company. That was only one of many ways of exploitation adopted. by the less scrupulous drivers. Most of us know or the circumstances on long-distance runs where drivers have been seen in the past to be seated comfortably at the side of a jacked-up road wheel, whilst, in the absence of the passengers, the road wheel connected with the taximeter was merrily spun with. the totals conveniently augment There was also the scheme, practised not a little with the object of defeating the company owning The machine, whereby, after a bargain for a run, say, to Brighton, had been struck, the near and off wheels were changed with the result that the taximeter recorded nothing until they were put back towards the end of the journey into their original positions. Arid, indeed, there were many other ways in which this mechanical tell-tale was defeated. In the case of the owner-driver or his equivalent, none of these monkey tricks was, of course, necessary, provided always that there was no illegal attempt to defraud the passengers. Most of the cases, however, of jugglery with the taximeter were directed in the past at misleading the company's records, and but few were directed at defrauding the passenger.

There are many other reasons, of course, why it is more advantageous to the motorcab interests for drivers to own their own cabs or at least to hire them. As a rule, the type of man who owns his own cab is a more responsible personage, and he, nine times out of ten, is out to do the best with his machine. Courtesy is, therefore, by no means an unknown addition to the services he renders to his passengers ; in fact, in numerous cases he relies on his own personal connection and regard to secure good will and earnings. He saves his machine, they are Ms tyres and Ms gears, which makes all the difference. He also takes a personal pride in its appearance.

Generally the public is likely in the end to benefit considerably by virtue of the disappearance of the public company operating niotorcabs. They still exist in Paris, or at least did before the wa ,r and a very abominable service they constituted. With the return from the war of tens of thousands of men with knowledge and appreciation of the motor, we may expect a very great increase in the ranks qztf driverowners of motoreabs, which should prove te be a distinct public benefit, if I do not judge amiss.

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Locations: Paris, London

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