PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
Page 21
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World.
BIRKENHEAD'S GROWING BUS , FLEET.
Highly Successful Results Attend the Working of the Municipal Buses During the Past Year.
TITAT the motorbus system maintabled . bythe Birkenhead Corporation is a distinctly profitable enterprise is clearly. indicated by facts contained in the report. of Mr.. C. Clarke, the general manager of the traniways and mottirs department, for the year ended March 31st last. , A net profit. of £28,343 on the year's working must be considered a very gratifying return, es.. pecially as it-is £12,320 greater than the figure for the-previous year. Moreover, it compares with a net profit of £7,360 on the tramways which, however, were operated more successfully than in the year 1926-27, when a net deficiency of 12,778 was recorded.
At the enci of March last the municipal fleet at Birkenhead consisted of 57 vehicles, but since that time five single-deckers and ,•10 -double-deckers• have been added :to the-fleet, the .makes and types of which it it composed b,eing, as follow :-67 heylands (10 55-seaters, 18 52-seaters, -10 -51-seaters; six 40seaters, 17 86-seaterS, .six 2-seaters), four Guys (three 26-seaters, one 20seater) and a Thornycroft 20-seater.
The first motorbus service in Birkenhead was established in July, • 1919, and of the large number of routes since opened up, two—those from Charing Cross to Seaeombe Ferry and Liscard Village—are worked in conjunction with the buses of the Wallasey Corporation. The first double-deck bus to be run in the borough was commissioned for service in May, 1925. The corporation has an inseparable ,assocla.don with passenger transport development by road vehicle, for it was in Birkenhead that the first street tramway in Europe was established, that being in August, 1860. .
An analysis of income and expenditure in connection with the operation of the buses during the Past year shows the former at 1124,773 and the latter at £74,485, the gross surplus thus being £50,288, as compared with £90,049 a
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year earlier, when the total income was 108,589 and operating expenses amounted to £68,540. After deducting k21,945 for interest, sinking fund` charges, etc., this sum is reduced to £28,343. Of this amount £14,120 has been allocatedin relief of rates and £858 has been disposed of for the cost of the erection of a shelter and waiting room at Motetou, whilst the remainder (113,365) hasbeen transferred to the tramways net revenue account, The highly successful results which have attended the operation of the buses call be gathered from the fact that the motorbus reserve fund now stands at £23,017.