Road-Rail Vehicles Serve Canadian Middle West
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Qin the Canadian Middle West UI \--ithe combination road-rail bus passes .without notice. It looks like a conventional six-wheeledbus, running along the rails, but the unexpected happens when it simply leaves the rails and heads down the road. It is equipped with hydraulically operated rail bogies, which are used as a guide when .running on rails and keep the rubber-tyred wheels on the track without any ordinary steering by the driver.
Upon arriving at a small town, located, perhaps., half -a mile from the railway, the vehicle simply slows down at the rail crossing; the driver presses a lever Which lifts the bogies and then proceeds .down the highway to the town.
The general idea is that, in small towns and villages not hawing a regular buS service, this vehicle can run through the principal streets, picking up and discharging its passengers at street
Nationalization:
A STATUTORY corporation to run r-k the State transport services in Bombay is expected to begin operations in November. A draft Bill, authorizing the formation of the organization, has been prepared.
According to Mr. N. G. Pandit, divisional controller at Poona, about 2,000 buses will be owned by the corporation: when all services have been taken over.
The State transport services were started in June. 1948, with 35 buses running on the Poona-Ahmadnagar and
certain other routes. Since that time services have been extended to Poona, Sholapur, Ahmadabad, Kaira and Bijapur, and 440 buses are in operation. Commers and Seddons (with Perkins oil engines) and Leyland Comets are included in the fleet.
corners. Then back to the railway tracks it goes; as it turns off the highway on to the tracks, another turn of the lever lowers the bogies.
The bus carries 36 passengers seated and can, at a pinch, handle a dozen more standing, although this is not done except on rare occasions. Living up to railway standards, a large headlight is used when travelling on the rails, whilst regular twin headlights, located in the customary way, arc used on the road.
Goods, Too.
In addition to passenger-carrying vehicles, there are also freight trucks, equipped to run on rails and upon arrival at the town to make deliveries at the .door, as is done by any other road transport unit. This method eliminates double handling and the maintenance ' of a separate delivery system in towns. .
Vehicles are equipped with couplings, so that on runs where they do not leave the rails a combination of passenger vehicles and trucks can be made, and cne driver will handle the coupled train. In this case, the front unit pulls the rear one which, being out of gear.. is free-wheeling; only the braking and lighting systems are linked up as a common unit.
As many readers. will recall, a Karrier road-rail vehicle was introduced, and operated for a 'while, in Britain some years ago by the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway Co.
India Presses On Mr. Pandit said that in Poona, bus stations, sanitary and drinking-water arrangements ancl. canteens were to be provided at 50 places, at a cost of Rs. 2,000,000. A central workshop was also to be constructed at Dapuri.
In Madras, where road passenger transport is also gradually being nationalized, the Government bus undertaking has so far made a profit of Rs. 1,583,635. In the first year the profit was Rs. 600,461, and in the second year Rs. 983.174.
The Sind Government has taken over all road transport in Hyderabad, and companies operating on main and subsidiary routes have 'had to withdraw their buses. Instead, they have been given other routes in the interior of the Province. So far the Sind Government has only 30 .buses