Passenger-Vehicle Topics.
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Among the " unclaimed " articles which will be sold by the London and South Western Railway Co. next week is a motorbus.
The London cad rivers are raising a relief fund for the " Titanic " victims: 2d. tickets are being issued by a representative committee.
A committee of the Pier Ward Ratepayers' Association of Southend has decided to submit to the Association a recommendation favouring the inauguration of a motorbus service in Southend.
The Public Carriage authorities of Scotland Yard have passed a Gregoire taxicab for public service. It was presented by the Sun Star Cooperative Motor Cab Co., of York Road, King's Cross.
A Prosperous Co-op.
The New Park Motor Cab Co., Ltd., has acquired commodious premises in Battersea, where there will he accommodation for fully 100 cabs. All the drivers of this com pany are shareholders. The accountants to this concern have complimented the management on its sound financial basis.
Killed whil:t Learning.
A fatality under somewhat curious circumstances occurred on Thursday last inside the Brixton garage of the General Motor Cab Co. A pupil who had passed his " Knowledge of London" test, and was waiting for his final driving test, was knocked down and killed by a cab driven by an instructor. The coroner's verdict was " accidental death," and the instructor was exonerated; he was driving quite s lowly.
,More Taxicabs in Dublin.
A new garage, equipped with a fleet of Napier taxicabs, has been opened in Dublin by Mr. F. W. Chambei s. The cabs to be used are smartly got up, and are fitted with all modern improvements. A continuous day and night service will be given.
London Traffic Rivals.
The L.C.C. tramway receipts, for the week ended the 17th ult., were £41,685, compared with £47,782, for the corresponding week of 1911 ; the L.G.O.C. receipts, for the. week ended the 27th ult., were £54,064, compared with R37,473 for the corresponding week of 1911.
The L.C.C. decrease is £6097, whilst the L.G.O.C. gain is £16,591.
Gamage-Bell Motorcab Co.
The second report of the Gainage-Bell Motorcab Co. shows but moderate progress. No dividend will be paid on any of the shares. The gross profits amount to £8000, which shows a net profit of £1000, and this is to be carried forward. We notice that no provision has yet been made for depreciation of cabs, though in the prospectus it was calculated that the total cab costs should be written off in six years. The company has now 116 vehicles in all on the road, and it is hoped that the agreement with other cab proprietors will be for the common good, and that the current year will show more satisfactory results. The directors of the company have agreed to accept a modified fee until the company is in a stronger financial position. Mete is again a proposal afoot to establish a bus service between
Chorley and Wigan.
Cabbies and the Race-course.
Some hundreds of London taxicabs were chartered from London for the Epsom Spring Meeting last week, and repnisentatives of the various large owners were in attendance in order to send back to London such cabs as were found on the race-course with their flags up, that is, unhired. Careful note was also made of those cabs which were found.to be " en panne." The average London cabby is always attracted by a race meeting, and in order to be present he will often agree to be hired for a single journey,will wait there to see the race, and will risk the finding of a fare back to London. The fare registered on the taximeter from London Bridge to Epsom is usually lie. Last week an instance came to our notice in which the driver of a twocylinder Renault agreed to take a party of five for the single journey for 12s. A four-cylinder cab was engaged for a similar load for 25s. for the return journey, ft must be remembered that. "extras " are no longer the property of the proprietors. In the latter case quoted, the proprietor may have obtained a good average price per mile on the cab, but the cab would he idle at least. four hours while at the meeting. In our opinion, it would not be at all a bad idea for the proprietors, on occasions such as these, to allow reputable drivers to take their cabs out at so much a mile. There is, of course, a considerable diversity of opinion on the point. Passenger-Vehicle Topics.
Coventry is to provide a motor ambulance for use at the Isolation Hospital at a cost of about 2800.
The Ups and Dawns or Taxicabs.
A fleet of Siddeley cabs is being vtin by the G.M.C. Co., Ltd., from Brixton Garage. The career of these tabs has been a somewhat ,chequered one. They were licensed and stored for a considerable time at Farm Lane, and as they were not used for public service the Commissioner of Police removed the plates. The cabs have now been re-licensed.
Trolleybus Activity.
A Bill now before the House, which Bill is intended to continue and amend the Light Railways Act of 1896, includes these clauses :— "Power of Light Railway Contnrissioners to Authorize Trackless Trolley Systems.--2.—(1) A trackless trolley sysom along any road or street may be authorized by order under the principal Act in the same manner and subject. to the same conditions as a light railway, and that Act and any Act amending the same shall accordingly he construed as if the expression light railway ' included a trackless trolley system.
"(2) The expression 'trackless trolley system' means a system of running on roads or streets without any defined track or line of rails mechanically propelled vehicles moved by electrical power transmitted thereto from some external source, and includes all apparatus necessary for working the system.
"(3) Mechanically propelled vehicles used for the purpose of any trackless trolley system authorized in pursuance of this section shall not be deemed to be light locomotives within the meaning of the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1893 (59 and 60 Viet. e. 36), or the byelaws and regulations made thereunder, nor shall they be deemed to le, motorcars within the meaning of the Motor Car Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7,
c. 36). and neither that Act nor the regulations made under that Act, nor the enactments mentioned in the Schedule to the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1896 (61 and 62 Viet.
c. 29), nor the Locomotives Act, 1898, shall apply to any such mechanically propelled vehicles except in so far as they are incorporated or applied by the order authorizing the system : " Provided that nothing in this provision shall affect any duties of excise (including the duties charged by section eight of the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1896) for the time being payable in respect of any :11011 vehicles."
The S.M.M.T. will no doubt take some action here, Likely G.M.C. Changes.
There is a large plot of ground available for building purposes at the corner of Vassal' Road, in the Brixton Road. It was recently in.pected by some of the controlling holders of General Motor Cab Co., Ltd., stock. It is stated tha.: the Private Hire Department, which runs a number of Charron cars from lo h.p. to 40 will shortly be moved from the cab garage at Brixton and be carried on as a separate concern and under separate management.
Are the Buses to Blame ?
An action was tried as the Westminster County Court, arising out of an accident to a passenger alighting from a motorbus while in notion. The ;judge gave his decision for the proprietors of the bus, on the ground that the accident occurred through the plaintiff's alighting on his own responsibility and without invitation to do so.
Richmond Refuses Overhead Equipment.
The antiquated horse tramway in Kew Road, Richmond, is to be finally abandoned. Mr. C. J. Cater Scott, at a meeting of the London United Tramways, Ltd., recently. said that the company was seeking an extension of time for constructing an electric tramway along the Kew Road. The Richmond Corporation has refused to consent to any scheme involving the use of overhead equipment.
"The Last Horse."
The last bus horse of the London General Omnibus Co. was, it will be remembered, sold in the fall of last year. A few, however, were retained by this concern up to the present time for th2 service of the ticket and coachbuilders departments. These, however, are now disposed of. The last 25 horses have now been sold under the hammer. It may be once again recalled that the L.G.O.C., not including the other horse-owning companies which it has absorbed, at one time owned 17.800 horses : one stable alone housed 900 of them under the one roof.