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HIGH COURT APPEAL LIKELY "
7HERE is an intricate question of
• 1 law involved and it may be that my clients will desire a High Court decision on it," observed Mr. J. G. Thacker, of Lincoln, at the conclusion of a case heard at Boston Police Court on August 27. Mr. Thacker was appearing for the Lincolnshire Road Car Co., Ltd., of Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln, which was fined £2 and ordered to pay two guineas costs for allowing passengers in excess of the seating capacity to be carried on one of its vehicles on May 25. The conducto: at the bus was tined £1.
Mr. L. A. White, of Nottingham, prosecuting on behalf of the Traffic Commissioners, said that a 34-seater bus belonging to the company was seen carrying 53 passengers. At the time the particular bus operator ran he had a monopoly, and it was his duty to make proper provision for the public.
..Mr. J. Staniland, for the conductor, suggested that he (the conductor) might have been charged with permitting the offence, instead of which he was charged with aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring, which was a good deal more sinister. .He contended that to be guilty of this, something active must have been done. The conductor did not induce people to get on the bus and, in fact, did nothing active at all, He submitted that the case should be dismissed.
'Mr. Thacker, for the compamy, said that what was done was entirely without the knowledge of the company, which had given definite and repeated instructions to drivers and conductors that they must not overload.
Mr. White said, having regard to the framing of the law and the words used, even if the magistrates were satisfied that the company had no knowledge of the offence, and that it had taken adequate steps to prevent it, if an offence had actually been committed the company was automatically convicted.
When the magistrates announced the penalties, Mr. Thacker said that, subject to consideration, his clients might think fit to ask the magistrates to state acase so that the question of law might be dealt with in a higher court.
NEW £110,000 GARAGE FOR BIRMINGHAM.
BIRMINGHAM Transport Committee reports that additional garage accommodation has become necessary owing to the rapid growth of the bus fleet. It has, therefore, recently purchased a site in Yardley Wood Road for the erection of a garage, to accommodate 150 vehicles, at a cost of £110,000.
LAST OF LONDON'S TRAMS.
A LTHOUGH it will be a few years before the complete change-over can be effected, authorization has been received by the L.P.T.B. to replace the whole of London's tramways system.
The Board is faced with the problem of providing turning points at certain centres, and Parliamentary sanction has to be obtained in connection with such terminals.
UNION DRIVE IN SCOTLAND
EMPLOYEES of the Caledonian Omnibus Co., which operates extensively over main routes in south-west Scotland and North Cumberland, held a private meeting last week-end, An official of the Scottish Transport and General Workers Union criticized pre-, sent working conditions and standards of payment of the men. There is a movement on foot to organize a union drive, for although 75 per cent, of the men at Scottish depots of the company are affiliated, all employees in the Carlisle area are non-members.
The situation involves between 50 and 60 conductors and 70 drivers in south-west Scotland and 15 conductors and. 20 drivers in Cumberland. The split between non-union and union members of the company led to the last strike by employees being a fiasco.
BUS DISPUTE ARBITBR.
IT has been suggested that Sheriff Irvine. K.C., Aberdeen, should act as arbiter in a dispute between Young's Bus Co., Paisley, and the Amalgamated Engineering Union, with regard to the wages and conditions for men and apprentices on night work and evertime.
BIG LONDON TROLLEYBUS CONVERSION
ON September 12 L.P.T.B. will make the largest change-over from trams to trolleybuses yet attempted in one day. The number of new routes will be five, with extensions on two further routes. Route No. MO (Harrow RoadScrubs Lane to West Croydon) will he the longest trolleybus route in the south of England. . •
There are now 112 route miles of trolleybus services in London and, by the end of the year, there will be 170 miles, with about 720 trolleybuses in service.
SUNDERLAND CORPORATION EMPLOYEES UNSETTLED.
B115 and tram drivers and conductors, numbering 500, employed by Sunderland Corporation: decided at a midnight meeting on August 27 to refer alleged grievances to an inquiry by the National Joint Industrial Council. The men previously threatened strike action
to begin on August 28. The men are demanding payment at the rate of time-and-a-half lor overtime during the illuminations period, but. this has been rejected. Other complaints concern the spread-over of hours, speeding up of services and the alleged violation of the seniority rule.
In a statement issued on Monday, Sunderland Transport ' Committee declared that there was not an undertaking throughout Great Britain where the employees had better employers than Sunderland Corporation, or where the .conditions of employment were more reasonable: U.S. LONG.DISTANCE OPERATORS COMBINE.
VOLUNTARY co-ordination is a V feature of long-distance coach operation in the United States. An organization known as National Trailways, similar in some respects to the British Associated Motorways, runs a large number of services, including some from Chicago to the Pacific coast.
It is comprised of a number of roadtransport undertakings, of which several are either subsidiaries of the railways or are concerns in which the railways are financially interested.
The object of the organization is to B42
co-ordinate time-tables on the transContinental coach services, to take joint action to improve road stations, to promote a national publicity campaign and to weld together the indi
vidual interests. The members of National Trailways retain their individual identities, but their vehicles are painted in the colours of the co-ordinating organization and carry its insignia.
SCOTLAND TO ROME BY BUS.
APARTY of 20 Italians left Glasgow by bus on Sunday for Rome. They will travel almost the full distance of 9,000 mike to Italy and back by a bus, which is owned by Mr. B. Cotter, of Bellshill. The charge per head for travel and sleeping accommodation is £15.
S.M.T. STRIKERS STILL FIRM.
THE strike of members of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers at the Edinburgh_depot of the S.M.T. Co., Ltd., entered on its eighth week on Monday and found the men
deterniined to continue until the nonunionist worker who was employed beside them joins their ranks, "They are as full of fight as ever," Mr. George Symington told The Commercial Motor. "The, firm are now advertising in Renfrevvshire, Glasgow and Carlisle for non-union workers."
MANCHESTER TRAM 'ROUTE TO GO. • AANCHESTER Transport Com1V1mittee has obtained sanction to borrow £5,000 for the conversion of Ashton New Road tramway route. to trolleybus working.
STANDING IN SINGLE-DECKERS.
AT the inquest on a passenger who fell from a single-deck bus operated by the L.P.T.B., the jury added a rider to the effect that standing should not be permitted on this class of vehicle.
NEW " TRENT " GARAGE AT HUCICNALL.
UUCKNALL will become an impor I taut depot of the Trent Motor Traction Co. with the completion, by about the end of the year, of the new garage at Portland Road, Hucknall. The new garage will accommodate 35 buses.
BUSES WIPE OFF TRAMWAY. DEBT
I N the year ended March 31, 1937, St. Helens Corporation made a gross profit of £28,545 from the operation of its trolleybuses, being equal to 3.99d. per vehicle mile. In respect of motorbuses, the gross profit was £2,758, equivalent to .63d. per bus-mile. '
In the case of the trolleybuses, income totalled £97,940 and expenses £69,394, the corresponding figures relative to motorbuses being £42,888 and £40,130 respectively. In the year the number of passengers carried on the trolleybuses was 14,388,550, and on the motorbuses 4,019,747.
During the year the trolleybuses covered a total mileage of 1,713,251 and the motorbuses a mileage of 1,039,43C. At the end of the period covered by the report, the corporation operated 44 trolleybuses and 28 motorbuses..
The The past year's accounts constitute a record in respect of revenue, passengers carried and profit, and the corporation is to be congratulated on the fact that it has repaid the debt on the tramwaTh which were discontinued on March 31, 1936.
FINED FOR OVERLOADING'.
AFINE of £2 and costs was imposed on Westcliff Motor Services, Ltd., by the Southend Bench last week for using a bus carrying a number of pi eeengers in excess of that authorized by law. Licensed to carry 56 passengers, and five standing in special circumstances, the vehicle ,at the time of the offence had 66 passengers on board. The serious feature of the case, submitted the prosecution, was the carrying of standing passengers on the upper deck, a practice which is prohibited_
NEWCASTLE PREFERS TROLLEY BUSES TO TRAMS. •
PRELIMINARY trials have been carried out by Newcastle-On-Tyne City Council with new tr011eybuSes over the route from Stanhope Street to Walker, where the tramcars are to be abolished. It is expected that the new service will be inaugurated shortly as the trials have been in every way satisfactory.