619,268 C Vehicles
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r1GURES for April, giving details of
C-licence vehicles, show a further substantial increase over those for the preceding month. The number of additional vehicles was 6,559, of which 2,594 represented expansion of existing fleets. There were 3,965 machines for 3,937 new operators.
The greatest advance Was in the under-Is-ton class, The complete figures are shown in the following table:— HAULIF,RS in Lewis were warned, last week, by Mr. A. Robertson, Scottish Deputy Licensing Aitthority, that if they infringed the conditions of their licences they would be put off the road for a month as punishment. In serious cases, licences would be revoked.
• Mi. W D. Connochie, who appeared for Lewis Motor Transport, Ltd., to oppose applications from operators in rural Lewis, alleged that some of them had been running into Stornoway, contrary to the conditions of their licences. He also claimed that some operators had replaced existing vehicles with much larger ones, which they were running without authority.
BRADFORD HELPS COLOMBO
NOW undergoing training in this country, in modern transport methods, is Mr. R. Canagaraycr, engineer of Colombo's municipal tramways. Arrangements have been made by the Lord Mayor of Bradford for Mr: Canagarayer to receive instruction in trolleybus operation in the municipal transport department.
As previously announced iO "The Commercial Motor," Colombo is to introduce trolleybuses to replace its trams, but up to the present formal sanction to the scheme hrs not been given by the Minister concerned.
it could not maintain even a scheduled average of less than 20 m.p.h., and this with a double track throughout. The delays at some of the stations were astonishingly long and my feeling was: if this be the way the railways deal with passengers, what happens to goods?
As I have already said, the railways in this district, although having an extensive mileage, are inadequate to deal with modern developments. They were built originally to handle coal and iron, and were never designed for fast traffic, either passenger
ROADS WITH BUS SERVICES
or merchandize. The' route from the south is painfully circuitous. The detour into 13arrow adds 16 miles, then at one point the passenger sees the chimneys of the Millom ironworks about two miles away across the Duddon estuary and half an hour later he actually passes by them, having in the meantime described a horseshoe
At Whitehaven the town is entered by a tunnel a mile long, with a speed restriction necessitating a transit thine of 10 The end of the war made it necessary to turn once more to the task of finding alternative work. The ordnance factory at Sellafield is to become an atomicenergy plant, but nothing has yet been done with the other two. The new industrial estate started before the war at Maryport has been developed and a new one opened at Salterbeck, near Workington, whilst group sites have been established at Wigton, Aspatria, Broughton Moor, Cockermouth, liensingharn, Frizington, Cleator, Whitehaven, Egremont and Mi.Ilorn.
Forty-one manufacturers are concerned and they are making agricultural machinery, artificial silk, boots and shoes, carpets, chemicals, clothing, curled hair, dried fruits, electric accessories, fertilizers, furniture, knitted goods, leather and leather goods, light alloys, paper, plastics, rayophane; scientific and surgical instruments, thermometers, toilet preparations, tools and vehicle bodies.
The work has been greatly aided by the Development of Industry Act, 1945, as this Act enabled the West Cumberland Industrial Development Co., Ltd. (established in 1937) to go ahead with the building and letting of factories under the auspices of the Board of Trade.
The reason why the Cockerrnouth concern uses rail is partly that the town . is on the Workington-Penrith line: which gives useful connections at both ends, but mainly that there is no organized smalls service in the area. This drawback has been apparent to me for many years, and 10 years ago I spent some time in trying to find a haulier in Cumberland who would interest himself in smalls and connect with the services run by members of the National Conference of Express Carriers. It was too far from my base for me to tackle, but had anyone done so, he would undoubtedly have done well with the development that has taken place since.
Pre-war Difficulties
The best I was able to do in 1938 was to send traffic to Newcastle and have it transferred there to Messrs. S. Gooch, of Carlisle, or to the West Cumberland Carrying Co., the only smalls carriers serving even part of the area. lt was possible by this means to cover the coast as far south as Whitehaven, but the route was circuitous and. expensive, and a great part of the country was left unserved. No long-distance carrier would stop at Carlisle to unload and there were no night 'depot facilities available even if anyone had been willing to do so.
By the time this article appeals in print, the British Transport Commission will have taken over Cumber