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Passing Comments

4th November 1949
Page 28
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Page 28, 4th November 1949 — Passing Comments
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The man who Drove, I AST week we referred a Bus when aged "briefly to the death, on

Nine . October 19, of Mr. W. H.

Birch, M-.Inst.T. Son Of the late Mr. W. S. Birch, he left Dulwich College in 1875 and joined the family business which was founded in 1832 by his grandfather, another William Birch. Eventually he succeeded his father as chairman of the Atlas and Waterloo Omnibus Association, which controlled over 500 horsed buses, including a number owned by the then London General Omnibus Co. At the age of nine he even drove one of these vehicles under Temple Bar, which was then in its original position.. Always keen on forming practical links in the industry, he was often to be seen at the annual conferences of the present Public Transport Association—in fact, we had a long conversation with him at Harrogate this year, when he showed that his brain had not deteriorated with the years. It was in 1904 that he became a pioneer of mechanical road transport, and as early. as 1919 ran coaches on"Seeing Britain " tours He fought hard against the London Traffic Act of 1924, and in 1930 made a 'working agreement With his old friend but opponent, the late Mr. Frank Pick, of the Underground Group. He was much opposed to the London Passenger Transport Bill, which he prophetically looked upon as the forerunner of State aggression against private enterprise. Since then, his company's main activities have been in Bedfordshire and

A,26 Hertfordshire. He also had coachbuilding interests, and was for many years on the council Of the National Federation of Vehicle Trades. One of his three sons is with the B.B.C., the others (Raymond and John) being, of course, well known in the road transport industry.

Who Should Manage WE were somewhat amused a Small Council's " at a report in a recent Transport ? . issue of "The Municipal . Journal" of a meeting of the Bexley (Kent) Council. The problem before it was to select someone to control the transport organization, the borough being not sufficiently large to require the services of a full-time officer and staff for this purpose. It was decided that the borough treasurer should undertake the work and he would receive an ad hoc payment of E100 per year for this additional duty. One councillor thought that the ,transport was obviously the .field of the borough engineer. He 'considered it might just as well be put in the hands. of the medical officer as the treasuret. but another thought it was sound business common' sgnse, that the officer would be in the position of a .director and would not be required to go " monkeying about" with the workshop. Perhaps, however, the Corporation will buy the treasurer a suit of dungarees for the occasional 'inspection which should 'be' necessary. Reactions of Haulage A N interesting letter has Staff to State " reached us. from an erst Control while transport contractor whose business was nationalized a few months. ago. It was quite a happy . concern, with 19 heavy vehicles, of 175 tons, carrying capacity, employing a total staff of 25. After 14 days' operation under the Road Haulage Executive, 21, including the contractor himself, handed in their notices, and the few left have been looking for jobs. He asked if this be a record, and what is wrong with a system which could cause such trouble. As a result of requesting him to give further information, he stated that his reason tor leaving was the spate of official forms and being made, as he put it, to "toe the line" and accept orders which, for 20 years, he had been in the habit of giving He had built up and paid for a good and profitable business conducted in his own way. Now, he feels that the profit-will not be there, although he admits that he may be wrong in this view As regards the drivers, they left, or are leaving, because of being kept away from home for an average of some three nights per week. That is the feeling in just one concern, and there must be many others in which discontent is rife. This is,

perhaps, a natural reaction to such a drastic change as must occur when private enterprise comes tinder State control with all its forms and officialdom

Will Coaches be 'FRE progress being made in Equipped with connection with the equip Television? ping of cars with television

receivers leads one to presume that this form of equipment may, later on, be applied to coaches engaged in certain classes of work, such as long-distance touring. Experimental work in this connection has been carried out by The Gramophone Co., Ltd., in co-operation with the Standard Motor Co:, Ltd., an H.M.V. set having been fitted to a 1950 Standard Vanguard saloon, This has a 10-in screen and the current is obtained from a rotary converter operated from the car's electrical system, a whip-type aerial providing sufficient signal strength. The • receiver is fitted between the front seats and is, of course, visible only to passengers in the rear seat, being tilted for easy viewing. The .vehicle has been running between the Motor Show and Radiolympia • during these exhibitions. The venture is, of course, quite experimental, and no installations of this type are yet on the market:


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