MUNICIPAL OFFICIAL STEAM SEES CHANCE FOR BUSES
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THAT the Government should develop the use of alternative fuels and give preferential taxation to steam vehicles was advocated by Councillor G. W. G. Armour, chairman of Liverpool Passenger Transport Committee, in an address which he gave thal, Liverpool, last week. Here are e salient points from his speech:— -" It is extraordinary the way the Government Jia failed to encourage the use of home-produced fuel. Not until March of this year was there a body set up to deal with the matter and no encouragement has yet been given to municipal-transport bodies. " Low-pressure gas is being used by some undertakings, but this is only practicable when single-deck buses are operated and so it is out of the question in Liverpool. " High-pressure gas is being used in Wallasey, but the amount of steel required for bottles and compressors rules out the possibility of this system being developed to any great extent until after the war. " On the other hand, producer-gas equipment is making considerable progress, but there is a short,4ge of suitable fuels. " This question of fuel goesto the root of our present difficulties. It is a problem which will be even more important when we have won the war.
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A. bus, whether oil or petrol, costs about 21,800 and has to be written off in eight years. A steam engine would have twice the life, should be less costly to manufacture, less costly to maintain, and, owing to the smoothness with which it takes up its load, would involve far less vibration and so make bodywork last much longer, thus reducing capital and maintenance charges by half. " I believe that a guarantee of preferential taxation for steam vehicles for the next 25 years would result in enormous developments in design. Steam-powered buses and lorries would be produced and the. resulting demand for good-quality coal would create work for thousands of miners."