N.I.R.T.B. Slowly Reducing Debt A WARNING as to higher costs and
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likely increases in charges, is embodied in the annual report of the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board.
This year, states the report, has seen the introduction of the 44-hour week in the undertaking, and the cost of this to the Board, together with several other arbitration awards, will, in a full year, amount to over £160,000, of which sum approximately £40,000 has fallen in the year ended September 30.
Increased ..,cists from labour alone, it is stated, will rise ftext year by a minimum of £120,000, so that with this and the rising cost of materials the Board will be faced with a steep increase in expenditure.
The report adds: It is Inevitable, therefore, that at an early date the Board will be forced to reconsider its scale of charges for both passenger and freight traffic."
Accounts for the year show an operating profit of £307,079, after charging £420,000 for depreciation and reserve for increased cost of renewals. Gross receipts from all operations constitute a record in the undertaking and amount to £3,381,683, as compared with £2.878,853 in the previous year, an expansion of 17.47 per cent. Expenditure increased from £2,667,091 to £3,074,604, or by 15.28 per cent.
The number of passengers carried by the Board during the year was 80,037,513, an increase of almost 6,000,000 compared with the previous year. Mileage run by the passenger fleet was' 27,790,859—almost 4,000,000 above the previous year.
In May this year mutual interchangeability of tickets was restored, ordinary returns being available for return either by road or rail.
During, the past seven years the debit balance has been reduced by £356,957 and now stands at £254,597. It is stated that the general taxation position is still unsettled, so ,hat the £310,000 set up as provision for taxation may even be more than sufficient.
Goods traffic handled by the Board amounted to 1,768,926 tons of general merchandise—an improvement over the previous years of more than 33,000 tons. The number of livestock carried was 634,000 and was thus 44,000 less than last year. Goods vehicles covered M,221,951 miles during the year, an inciease of more than 1,000,000 miles.
It is mentioned that services were seriously affected during the cold spell last winter, but exceptional summer weather offset this.
DOING THEIR BEST
ACCORDING to Mr. Callaghan, in the House of Commons, the Ministries of Transport and Supply are "employing a number of methods to get adequate supplies of spares for
public service vehicles. The position in relation to London Transport was more than usually difficult, he added, as 50 per cent. of London's buses were over 10 year; old.
POOLING SCHEMES FAVOURED
AREA Licensing Authorities will consider sympathetically schemes for the pooling of transport by C licensees for the purpose of saving fuel. This statement was made in the House of Commons, last week, by Mr. Callaghan, Parliamentary. Secretary to the Ministry of Transport
PANEL PAINTING WITH GLASS *REFLECTORS
MOVELTY in the finish of the panels J. 11 of vehicles and some types of trailer is always welcome if the results be satisfactory and the cost not excessive, In this connection "Transport Topics" draws attention to an interesting new finishing process developed by the technicians of the Prism° Safety Corporation, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. It takes the form of a reflecting or prismatic coating which is achieved in quite a simple way.
A colour coat of binder is sprayed or brushed on to the prepared surface in any desired pattern, and this work can be done by any coach painter. While, however, this binder coat is still wet, microscopic clear-glass globules are sprayed on to it, using a special hand gun. These globules or spheres become only partially embedded in the binder; consequently the surface of each acts as a reflector, thousands of minute particles performing their function in this manner.
It is said that the binder coat can be applied by the silk-screen method where the design is involved.
The binder coats are available in various colours, including white, yellow, green, red, blue, grey, orange or even matching shades to suit particular colour schemes.
There is, of course, nothing new in the idea of employing metal flakes or particles of other materials in a paint, and some very striking finishes have resulted from using materials of this type, but, in this case, it is the incomplete immersion of the glass globules which produces the interesting prismatic effect. This would, naturally, be emphasized in the presence of bright lights and concentrated rays.
I. OF T. BRANCH FOR READING
ABRANCH of the Metropolitan Section of the Institute of Transport is to be formed for members in the Reading area. This development was initiated by Mr. W. J. Evans, Reading Corporation' i transport manager, who has been appointed chairman of the committee which has been set up to take further steps. Mr. Walter Kershaw is the honorary secretary.
KENWARD MEMORIAL TRUST
THE fund to create a Kenward Memorial Trust has already reached £6,000, The Trust is being established in order to form a Fellowship of Industrial Administration at Cambridge University, from which would be drawn highly trained executives and administrators for industry at large.
NO WEEK-END TRANSPORT
TO save an estimated 250,000,000 litres of petrol a year, the Swedish Government has imposed a ban on the use of lorries, cars and motorcycles from 6 p.m. each Saturday until 5 a.m. on the Monday, unless special permission be granted. The motoring organizations are also co-operating with the Government in starting a fuel-saving campaign by voluntary effort, If this fails, heavier restriction will probably be imposed after February, 1948.