BUS RESULTS IN SCOTTISH CITIES.
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A Detailed Analysis of the Operation of Motorbuses by the Municipal Authorities in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
MWO comprehensive reports, pre sented to the tramways committee of the respective corporations, have just been issued by the municipal authorities in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where buses and tramcars are both in use. They make most instructive reading, and for the benefit of our readers we propose analyzing the returns so far as they relate to the operation of the former type of vehicle.
We will first deal with Edinburgh, primarily because the authorities in that city have by far the greater number of buses in use. It will be remembered that Mr. R.. Stuart Filcher, M.Inst.T., the tramways manager responsible for the report, contributed an informative article dealing with Edinburgh's municipal passenger transport to our Special Municipal Number published some months ago, and many of the observations made therein find direct endorsement in the document recently published.
The total revenue on the electric and motorbus systems in Edinburgh for de year ended May 15th last, amounted to 1806,573, as compared with £786,978 in the previous year, whilst the number of passengers carried increased in the twelve months from 119,333,902 to 132,770,614.
The revenue from buses alone was £109,400, a figure which represents a decrease of £22,838 as compared-with that for the previous year. The decrease in number of passengers carried was also substantial, and is represented by the difference between 15,669,256 and 18,939,780. This falling off in traffic is explained by the fact that the Mound and Hanover Street route was converted from bus operation to electric traction, although a new route for holiday traffic was inaugurated from the Braids ear terminus to Hillend.
At this point we may well extract the following pointed phrase from the report :—" . . . . the operation of motorbuses is bound op with the elec
tric tramway system. Frequently the traffic on tramway routes is supplemented by motorbuses. The two systems should be considered as a single transport organization for the city." There is a wealth of meaning in this last sentence, and it is a line of argument which Mr. Filcher pursued in the article to which we have already referred, although therein he made it clear that the type of vehicle which can best fulfil the condition of transporting a load from one point to another as quickly, cheaply, and comfortably as possible will, in time, supersede the other.
At the end of the last financial year the Edinburgh Corporation had 88 passenger vehicles in regular use, these consisting of 73 motorbuses and 15 chars-hbanes. The chassis used for these vehicles are of Leyland and A.E.C. manufacture, the bodies with which they are fitted being designed to accommodate 31 passengers in the case of the single-deckers (two of them are illustrated on this page), and 54 in the ease of two double-deckers which are in service.
One of the moat interesting statements revealed by the report is that referling to the experience of the corporation with pneumatic tyres. Some remarkable mileage records have been put up by equipment of this description on buses in use in Edinburgh, and it is stated that each pneumatic tyre is giving an average of 40,000 miles running, this highly satisfactory figure resulting in the cost per bus-mile being as low as that for solid tyres, i.e., .55d. per busmile. During the past year 39 buses have been converted to run on pneumatics, the cost, amounting to 16,817, being met out of revenue. The authorities point out that when it is considered vibration is eliminated, the cost of body and chassis repairs reduced, and greater comfort given to, passengers, they have every reason and justification for stendardizing pneumatics on the whole of their fleet of passenger motor vehicles.
The total revenue on the buses during• the year was, as we have already mentioned, 1109,400, and the working . expenses £107,101, leaving 12,299 to be carried to the net revenue account. Against this total there remains to be set a sum for interest and contributions to sinking ftini! (less interest received) amounting to £10,473, so that the loss is returned at 18,174. If. the cost of converting a large number of the buses to pneumatic tyres had not been charg,ed•to revenue the loss for the year would be reduced to £1,357.
The capital expenditure on Edinburgh's buses and garages up to date is £196,584, of which sum £154,897 has been paid off. The route mileage over which the vehicles operated at the end a the period covered by the report was slightly in excess of 37, and the total number of miles run by the fleet in the year was 1,742,909. The average number of miles run by each bus per day was 110, the average speed maintained throughout being 8.25 miles per hour, a fraction below the like return for tramcars. The average traffic revenue per bus mile was 14.58d. (2.22d. lower than that for the previous year), further small --items making the total revenue an additional .48d. per bus-mile.
Coming to fares, we find that the average sum paid per passenger was 1.614d. and, since the average fare per mile prevailing throughout the bus system is .994d., it will be seen that the average distance travelled by each passenger was nearly 1 2-3 miles. The average number of passengers carried per mile was 8.99. Of the total number of tickets issued, 57.24 per cent, were of 1d. value, the actual number being 9,006,113, out of a gross total of 15,732,315.
Turning now to the debit side of the revenue account it is shown that, of the total working expenses returned at £107,100, traffic expenses, absorbed £49,321 (wages were by far the largest item at £31,411), general expenses £8,037, the cost of repairs and maintenance 1.27,353 _(chassis £13,671, bodies £5,900), and the cost of petrol £22,390 (equivalent to 3.083d„ per bus-mile). The total working expenses per bus-mile amounted to 14.748d., as compared with 15.344d. for the previous year.
This completes the summary of the statistics in the report relevant to the operation of buses, but those who wish to become better acquainted with the conditions surrounding the use of the vehicles cannot do better than turn to the special article written by Mr. Stuart Pitcher end published in our issue dated February 10th last.
As compared with Edinburgh, the experience of the Glasgow Corporation is very limited. In the first place the authorities in the latter city only inaugurated bus services on December 8th, 1924, and the number of vehicles in use is only 14. From that date, however, until May 31st Iast (the report of the tramways committee just issued covers the year to this date) the fleet was in operation for 24,343 hours, during which it covered 227,190 miles. By dividing the latter figure by the former, it can be ascertained that the average speed per bus per hour was 9.33 miles. The number of passengers carried in this comparatively short period was 1,340,374, the average fare paid per passenger being 1.348d., and the number of tickets sold per bus-mile 5.90. The traffic revenue per bus-mile is given as 7.956d., and the working expenses 10.222d., the percentage of the latter to receipts thus being 128.49.
The revenue account for the .buses returns the total working expenses at £9,677, plus interest, depreciation and preliminary expenses at £2,970—a total of £12,646. As the traffic revenue was £7,531, it will be seen that there is a deficit of £5,115, and this has been carried to the tramways net revenue account. The average expenses per bus-mile amounted to 13.360d. and the average income per bus-mile to 7.956d.
In addition to the buses which the Glasgow Corporation has in service, it is also running on three months' trial a
52-seater covered double-decker. The vehicles are run from Monteith Row to Queen's Cross,