Operating Aspects of Passenger. Transport
Page 33
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BUSMEN GET WAGE RAISE
-THIS week, the first war-bonus pay ments were made to 80,000 employees of company-owned bus, trolleybus and tram undertakings in the provinces, including Scotland and Northern Ireland. It amounts to 4s. a week for men over 21 years of age and 3s. a week for women over the same age.
Adult employees of municipal passenger-transport undertakings have already received an advance in wages of 4s. a week, with corresponding amounts for those under 21 years of age. Negotiations are proceeding between the workers' Union and London Transport for a wage increase to meet the rising cost of living.
NELSON'S SHARE
TIIE annual abstract of accounts at Nelson shows that the net profit on the transport undertaking (in which Nelson shares with Burnley and Colne) was £1,062, transferred to the general rate fund, against £1,473 in 1937-38.
MORE LIGHT WANTED
AMEETING of 500 members of the Bolton branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union (passenger section) have appointed a deputation to interview the municipal transport manager (Mr. A. A. Jackson) to obtain more illumination in trains and buses and easier schedules in the black-out.
NO HELP FOR CONDUCTORS EGAL and other difficulties have led I-A Blackburn Transport Committee to decide against the appointment of youths to assist bus conductors during the black-out. Interior lighting of bases has been so much improved that assistance is, in any case, considered unnecessary.
On Blackburn buses 100 per cent. workmen's services are being run.
PROBLEMS OF CONGESTED PEAK-LOAD PERIODS
ANY appreciable improvement in travelling facilities could be effected only by spreading the load, says Mr. W. G. Marks, general manager of Liverpool Passenger Transport Department, in a communication to the local Chamber of Commerce, in which he urged earlier closing hours for commercial offices. The suggestion is being brought to the notice of members of the Chamber, although its general trade committee is not able to make any recommendation in the matter.
Mr. Marks has already stated that the alteration in the closing hours for shops has shortened the peak-load period, so that buses and trams are now carrying well over 75,000 persons per hour during that period. The result, coupled with black-out conditions, had brought about a considerable slowing down in the speed of the vehicles.
ON THE FARES FRONT
I NCREASED costs brought about by the recent award of higher wages to
municipal-transport operatives and by the iligher price of fuel and materials, coupled with a diminution of revenue on account of the black-out and fuel rationing, have caused councils throughout the country to cast about for ways and means of balancing the books. Some corporations anticipate big deficits at the end of the year and their transport officers are scrutinizing fares schedules with a view to remedying the position. Whether the public pays in higher fares or in higher rates, it will have to pay in some way.
Below we publish the latest news from the fares front. The items deal with the proposals of several municipal authorities and with the taxicab situation in Leeds.
Minimum Fare of Iid.?
BURY Corporation is to make appliL./cation to the Regional Transport Commissioner for permission to adopt a minimum ordinary fare of instead of Id., and a minimum return fare of 2d. for workpeople.
All-round Rise in Basic Fares Proposed
AN increase in trolleybus fares was discussed, last week, by Ipswich Town Council.
Mr. S. C. Grimwade, chairman of the electric supply and transport committee, said that if conditions remained as they were, there would be an estimated loss of £7,300 on the transport system at the end of the financial year.
The committee suggested that, with a few minor exceptions, all single basic fares be increased by id. as from January 1. This proposal was estimated to yield about £15,000.
The matter was eventually referred back to the committee.
Glasgow in a Serious Position
THE alternative of abolishing the weekly bus season ticket or of increasing the price from 3s. to 4s., was one of the proposals made by Mr. Robert F. Smith, general manager of Glasgow Corporation Transport Department, in a report which he presented to the transport committee on Decem. her 22. His report concerned increased fares to meet the higher costs of running the services.
Mr. Smith advocates no change in the existing bus fares.
Another suggestion was that all existing tram fares should be advanced by id. That proposal, it is understood, would be sufficiently productive to re-establish economic trading without any further change. Other proposals included the cancellation of free travel facilities to men in the Services. This concession would be replaced by a universal fare of Id. for men and women in Service uniform.
With regard to the bus section, the report adds:— . " The transport committee should keep in mind that we are at present strictly rationed for fuel for the bus section, and that any increased traffic which might be diverted to that section ,would create further traffic difficulties. The bus services in operation just prior to the outbreak of war were no more than able to cope with the demand at peak hours. Since the reduction of the services we are not able to meet the demand."
Mr. Smith explained in his report that a deficit of £72,100 had been anticipated by the department this year, but at the close of the half-year on November 90, the deficit stood at £160,485. Taking the figures for six months as a basis, the total deficit on the year's trading at the end of May would be £341,400 — an unprecedentedly serious financial position.
At the close of the half-year on November 30, the deficit was made up of £65,926 on buses, £82,981 on trains and £11,578 on the underground section. Extending this figure by an estimate for the next six months, Mr. Smith states that the year's deficit would run to £118,500 on buses, £202,400 on trams and £20,500 on the underground.
Higher Bradford Trolleybus Fares?
AN increase of id. in through fares on Bradford Corporation's tram and trolleybus services, and a rise from 3s. to 3s. 6d, in the price of weekly passes on almost all these services, have been recommended by the traffic and fares sub-committee of the corporation's passenger transport committee.
The recommendation has been made in view of increased working expenses and the imminent addition of about £18,000 a year to the wages bill as a result of the war wages award made by the Joint Industrial Council for municipal passenger transport undertakings.
At present no increase in the fares on the corporation's buses is proposed.
25 Per Cent. on Taxicab Charges?
A RECOMMENDATION to increase ti Leeds taxicab fares by 25 per cent. was made to the city council by Leeds Watch Committee on December 22. The fares will be increased, if the recommendation be approved, from 1s. to is. 3d. per mile in the case of class A taxis, which are of the larger type, and from 8d, to 10d, per mile for class B vehicles, which carry four passengers, including one seated beside the driver.