DEVELOPING THE WEST COAST OF IRELAND.
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What Has Been Accomplished by an Enterprising Dublin Motorbus Company.
THE most revolutionary step in the development of Irish transport since the introduction of the railway locomotive has been the inauguration of daily bus services over hundreds of miles of roads in County Mayo by the Magnet Bus Co., of Dublin. Buses now travel daily over highways that, up to a few months ago, had been used by no other form of traffic than the peasant's " ass and cart," or the motor of an occasional English tourist making his acquaintance with the wildest and most undeveloped part of the British Isles.
Hitheito the people of the Western Irish seaboard have lived a lonely life, remote from the railways and other centres of communication; and knowing little beyond what they read of existence outside their own romantic country. With the advent of the motorbus all that is gradually being changed, and now even the fisherfolk of remote Achill Island have their daily bus service, which crosses the remarkable bridge connecting the island with the lonely part of Connemara.
Mr. Gordon and his colleagues of the Magnet Bus Co. must be congratulated upon their enterprising work in Counties Mayo and Sligo, for the development of such distant districts
will be one of the strongest arguments in favour of the bus in a country which has legislators who have revealed themselves candidly to be in favour of railways and antagonistic to bus interests.
Speaking of the new bus services at the last meeting of the county council, Mr. T. P. Flanagan, county surveyor of Mayo, said there could be no doubt that the new services would, be a tremendous advantage, particularly in the country districts. The Magnet Bus Co.'s routes now stretch from Dublin to the most remote parts of the country., and inMayo it has services between Westport and Aehl11, via Newport and Mallaranny, across the Island to Dugort and Dooagh, and between Westport and Leeanvey and Lonisburgh. There are also several services between' places in the eastern part of the county and in Sligo. Associated Daimler and Dennis vehicles of the latest type are employed on these. will be made self-supporting. At present there are over au . vehicles licensed to run into the city, and traffic congestion and confusion are daily be-coming more acute by reason of the existing inadequate standage accommodation.
The sites of the proposed stations, together with the traffic for which they will provide accommodation, are as follow :—The Haymarket: Traffic from the north-east and north-west—at present vehicles are aecommodated on a limited number of stands allocated around the Boer War Memorial, and standage is quite insufficient for the ever-growing number of vehicles working from these areas, particularly since the opening of the New Coast Road to Tynemouth.
Marlborough Crescent: This will be ntilieed as the city terminus for all services from the west which enter the city via Scotswood Road and Westgate Road and from the south over the Redheugh Bridge. At present there is DO provision of this kind, except that vehicles are allowed to stand in the street.