COACH OWNERS GETTING TOGETHER.
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Amalgamation Arrangements for the Coming Season.
T is surnoure.d that.in Manchester this year there will be.a.cornbine of some of the leading local coach owners, who will thus be in a better position to arrest the extraordinary fluctuations in rates which took place last summer, and which brought financial distress to many small concerns. Although tire i proposal has been referred to in one of the Manchester evening papers as "a great ehara combine," and speaks of " big central depots being formed," and "first and third-class services being arranged," these extravagances may 'be dismissed as somewhat misrepresenting the true facts of the case.
Last year, it will be remembered, a large number of Manchester roach owners adopted working agreements, whereby their vehicles were operated on a centralized basis. Coach owners booked traffic, and the accounts and records were kept by the Coneolidate.d Motor Services, which, as e combination of small owners, working co-operatively, acted as a sort of clearing-house. No doubt an endeavour is being made-to revive this organization for the ecening sear-on.
The proposed amalgamation has in mind the development' of traffic to places like Llandudno, Moreca.mbe, and the Lake District, and it is stated that the charges for third-class services will be equal to the third-class railway fares, and that the first-class fare will be a higher figure, but still well under the first-class railway fare. The first-class coechee will be 14 and 18-seater, run ning pneumatic tyres', and there is talk of these vehicles leaving ,Manchester at 9 a.m., to be in Blackpool at 11 a.m., end similarly on the return journey leaving Blackpool at 8 p.m., to lee in Mancheeter at 10 p.m.
Our interviews with Manchester .coach owners brought us into touch with a eorepany who have had considerable experience of daily motor ecktch services, and they dismiss as being impracticable the idea of guaranteed arrival times, especially when coach owners emphasize the express nature of their runs. It is easy enough, they say, to guarantee departure times, but anybody with any experience of the Preston-Blackpool road in mid-summer will rule it cut as a futile endeavour to guarantee arriving at a stated time. The traffic is so great that drivers are unavoidably-held up.
Anotner object of the amalgamation is to develop the luggage-in-advance business to the Lancashire holiday resells. The intention is that luggage should be handed in the night before at the Man-• cheater depot, and will he delivered at the holiday-maker's address before he arrives, at a fee of 2s. 6d. per cwt.
The amalgamation scheme referred to is expected' to be settled early in Febrnary, and all plans will be ready in time for the Grand National, which is really the first event of the season..