HOW MUNICIPAL SERVICES ARE FARING.
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Continuing Our Summarized Analysis of the Latest Available Passenger Transport Returns of the Most Prominent Municipal Authorities.
IN this alphabetical arrangement of municipalities operat_Ling various types of passenger-carrying vehicle, we have already given summarised details of the latest available returns dealing with the services run by the authorities at Aberdare, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bradford, Burnley, Burton-on-Trent, Coventry, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Douglas (Isle of Man), Glasgow, Great Yarmouth, Huddersfield, Hull, Kilmarnock, Keighley, Leeds, Leicester, Lytham St. Anne, Maidstone, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Morecambe, Nelson, Newport, Northampton, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Preston, Rawtenstall, Reading. St. Helens, Salford, Sheffield, Southampton and South Shields, The opening instalment of this feature was published in our special passenger-vehicle issue dated ,February 8th and the concluding instalment will appear in our next issue.
STOCKPORT CORPORATION.
THE Stockport Corporation has been operating certain bus services for several years nest and, according to the report of Mr. A. T. Eardley, the general 'manager of the tramways undertaking, the eight motorbuses which were in use during the year ended March 31st, 1926, covered 191,407 miles and carried 1,584,205 passengers, the comparable figures for tramcars, of which 85 were in stock a year ago, being 2,086,616 miles and 28,812,453 passengers. The revenue account for the tramways showed total income at 1165,519 and expenditure at £107,630, the averages per ear-mile being 19.0376. and 12.370d. respectively. So far as the operation of the buses was concerned, traffic revenue amounted to £0,434 and expenditure to 19,624, the averages per bus-mile being 11.8306. and 12.0676. respectively.
Thus it will be seen that a surplus of £57,889 was shown on the tramcars, whereas a deficit of 1190 resulted from the
working of the buses. The balance carried to the net revenue account was thus £57,699, this being equivalent to 6.0786. per vehicle-mile. The net revenue account showed that this sum WWI reduced to £38,743 after providing for certain outgoings, including 114,173 for income tax. The net balance was appropriated by carrying 127,743 to the reserve and renewals fund, 13,000 to the new car shed and offices fund, and £500 to the accident reserve fund, the remainder-17,500—being used in aid of the rates.
At the end of March, 1926, the tramcars were in use over 25.81 miles of route, whilst the length of the bus routes was 5.03 miles. The corporation owns A.E.C. and Vulcan buses, some of the latter being of the one-man-controlled pattern.
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STOCKTON-ON-TEES CORPORATION.
M1ROM information which has been published from time
to time under the heading of our regular feature entitled "Passenger Travel News," many of our readers will know that the munleipal motorbus system operated by the Stockton Corporation is one of the most profitable in the North of England. As a matter of fact, in the year ended March 31st, 1926, the surplus of income over expenditure was £8,019. At this date the authorities had 24 vehicles in service, these being as follow :—Six Leyland one-man-controlled-type 26seaters, six A.E.C. 30-seaters, four Bristol 30-seaters, two Dennis 26-seaters, two Leyland 30-seaters, two Ford 14seaters and a Straker-Squire 32-seater, the 24th vehicle being a 80-seater 'Bristol coach.
The total cost of the fleet up to the end of March of last year was £29,337, of which sum £3,516 was expended during the course of the year we are briefly reviewing. The returns for the 12 months to March, 1926, were obtained from the following services :—Stockton-on-Tees to Yarm-onTees ; Stockton-an-Tees to Seaton Carew ; Stockton-on-Tees to Transporter, via Norton-on-Tees and Billingham ; Hartburn to Mile House, and Fairfield to Baby Road, the two last-named being essentially local routes. The buses were then in use on about 25 miles of routes inside the borough and to the surrounding districts. The total mileage covered was 488,281, the average receipts per bus-mile being 15.1fid.
The total revenue from the buses amounted to £31,212, whilst expenses were recorded at £23,193, a subdivision of the debit side of the account showing traffic expenses at £10,633, cost of repairs and maintenance at £6,044, cost of petrol at £4,882 and general expenses at 11,634. In terms of per bus-mile the average income was 15.336. and the average expenditure 11.396. Against the gross profit of £8,019 certain charges had to be set, these amounting to 16,421 and leaving a net balance of £1,598.
TODMORDEN CORPORATION.
IN the abstract of accounts dealing with the running of the buses of the Todmorden Corporation for the year ending March 31st, 1926, it is shown that the total expenditure in connection with the operation of the vehicles (capital charges included) was £42,861 and the total income £52,042, of which £50,094 was received by way of traffic receipts. The balance carried to the reserve and renewals funds was £9,181, where it was reduced to £3,998 after providing for capital outlay and replacement costs. Reduced to a per mile basis, the balance carried to the reserve and renewals
fund averaged 3.0184., and as the total income was equivalent to 17.072d. per bus-mile the total expenditure per busmile can easily be arrived at.
The total mileage covered by the bus fleet was 729,995, and the vehicles carried 4,261,620 passengers in the year. The Todmorden Corporation runs a large fleet of Leyland buses, many of which are double-deckers. The authorities commenced the operation of buses in 1907, an Act of 1906 having given them the right to institute bus services within the borough, whilst a Provisional Order of 1923 enabled the corporation to run vehicles over certain routes outside the borough.
WALSALL CORPORATION.
WHEN,the last municipal year (for which figures are available) of the Walsall Corporation came to an end, i.e., March 31st, 1026, the tramways system had been in operation for 22 years, whereas the motorbus services had been run for 11 years. In the 12 months to the date mentioned the buses ran 740,526 miles, whilst the tramcars covered a gross mileage of 1,022,848. The latter figure was subject to a deduction of 81,655 in respect of mileage run on the• lines of other authorities and to the addition of 70,351 for mileage run by other authorities on the Walsall lines, thus giving a net mileage of 1,011,544.
The buses carried 3,701,416 passengers in the year and the tratncars 11,800,137 passengers. According to the report of Mr. W. Vane Morland, M.I.A.E., M.Inst.T., the general manager and engineer of the tramways and motors department, for the year ended March 31st, 1926, the corporation owned 37 buses and 49 tramcars, the mileage of the routes on which the former were run being about 941.
The traffic revenue from the buses was £51,187, and the total revenue £55,291, whilst similar returns from the tramcars were £78,559 and /80,407 respectively. The expenses entailed in connection with the working of the buses were £38,252, whilst £56,855 was disbursed in running the trams. It will thus be seen that both systems provided a good balance on the right aide. After meeting certain charges (income tax, interest on capital, sinking fund, etc.) the net balance of the buses was 17,974 and on the trama £8,350, £1,217 of the former and £4,783 of the latter being allocated to the relief of the rates.
The following statistics have been extracted from the report and enable certain comparisons to be made between average returns for buses and trams:— Motorbuses. Tramcars.
Traffic revenue per vehicle-mile 16.589d. 18.639d.
Total revenue per vehicle-mile 17.919d. 19.077d.
Working expenses per vehicle mile (including power cost) 12.397d. 13.473d. Percentage of working expenses to total revenue ... ... 69.183 70.709 Speed per hour in miles ... 8.28 7.30 Fare paid per passenger ... 8.319d. 1.598d. Number of passengers per vehicle-mile ... ... 4.998 11.655 Vehicle-miles per route-relic ... 7,834 64,232 The Walsall Corporation had a number of TillingStevens and Daimler buses in service during the year with which our figures deal.