1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176 
Before Their Very Eyes
Page 111
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Do the public at large want to know the shape of the newest things in road transport? Speaking at the opening of the Commercial Motor Show last Friday, Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, expressed the opinion that ordinary users of road transport would find a visit a great experience. One may, however, be permitted to wonder whether knowledge of the latest, brightest, largest and most ingenious vehicles might not make passengers discontented with those routes of dubious profitability where miracles of maintenance and rejuvenation have been performed on elderly but still economic buses.
Breathing Space
THE Minister said Earls Court had seen many glittering 1 displays, but he could not recall anything more impressive. He was determined to give road transport more room to breathe and congratulated the contractors on the LondonBirmingham motorway, who were right on target, having so far shifted 9m. tons of earth. They were working on 120 bridges.
Before the 1960 Show, work should be in progress on the Preston-Birmingham, South Wales radial and Medway motorways. In the south the Ministry was working on the idea of the double-deck road. Thus, the commercial-vehicle industry could look forward to greater exports of vehicles built for, and proved on, British motor roads.
Self-inflicted Wounds
TNFORTUNATELY„ Press day (the Thursday before last) 1%-04 at the Commercial Motor Show, was a farce for foreign journalists. Technical representatives on stands were as scarce as water in the Sahara. Overseas Pressmen who were returning home on Friday could obtain 'little information unless they were fortunate enough to find a British colleague who had prior knowledge of the exhibits. They also had difficulty in securing photographs from exhibitors.
If the Show has had a poor Press overseas, manufacturers know who to blame. [fit has had good publicity, the credit goes to The Commercial Motor, for the information will have come mainly from this journal.
Coincidence
rTHE water in a goldfish tank on an exhibitor's stand at the Radio Exhibition was analysed when the fish died after three days. It was found to contain 3 per cent. alcohol. A commercial-vehicle sales manager who complained of feeling queer at Earls Court this week was taken to hospital, where his veins were found to contain 3 per cent. blood.
Mr. Justice Thesiger
THE handful of practising barristers who are authorities on road transport law has been reduced by the appointment of 55-year-old Mr. Gerald Thesiger, Q.C., as a Judge of the High Court. He will be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, Where many test cases affecting road transport have been fought.
He will be remembered as the chairman of the inquiry into road passenger transport licensing,. whose voluminous report was So completely objective that The Commercial Motor described it as redolent of carbolic and yellow soap. Of such `stuff,.Judges are made.
In his younger days he appeared in many road transport licensing cases, particularly in the passenger field. He is to be congratulated on his early appointment to the Bench.
Public Spirit
I T was generous of London Transport to allow London County Council to use Charing Cross Underground station for an exhibition intended to encourage Londoners to migrate to the territories of avaricious bus companies. Mr. Henry Brooke, Minister of Housing and Local Government, in opening the exhibition, rubbed in the misery of peak-hour travel by public transport in London. The Socialists will soon be claiming that be is in the pay of B.E.T. In that event he will be in good company, for every staunch Left Winger knows that Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of "Transport, is kept in idle luxury by he Road Hatilage Association.
Workers' Gratitude
HOW many _municipal general managers have received a presentation from members of the Transport and General Workers' Union to mark a quarter of a century of service? Mr. R. A. Fearnley, general manager of Coventry Transport Department, is one of the select few. It is a great tribute to the esteem in which he is heldby the municipalemployees that they last week gave him an inscribed musical cigarette box.
It may be added in small type that the transport committee remarked on the anniversary, but no more.
Quid Pro Quo
ACCORDING to Cllr. Charles Watson, of Scunthorpe, about 100 men are late for work or miss their shifts every day at a local steelworks because buses are delayed at a railway levelcrossing. I assume that in agreeing carriage rates with the railways, the management of the steelworks deduct the loss that they suffer daily through the late arrival of employees.
Dispirited
AFORMER filling-station proprietor at Morpeth ascribed his bankruptcy to the loss of business after" a tanker driver had mixed up his dery and petrol supplies. The custdmere confidence was so shaken that they never went there again. The tanker driver was embarrassed, too.