Operating Aspects of PASSENGER TRANSPORT
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE TRAFFIC AREAS
COMMISSIONERS TO HOLD CONFERENCE.
THE West Midland Traffic Commis sioners propose to hold a conference in Birmingham on January 26, at 10.30 a.m., to discuss the provision of bus stations and other matters. Persons who wish to suggest further points for discussion are invited to submit them to the Commissioners before January 16.
COACHES SOLVE NURSES' TRANSPORT PROBLEM.
CREDITABLE service is being per formed by two Daimler coaches, operated in connection with Charing Cross Hospital, which are illustrated on this page.
In 1931, the hospital council had to find additional accommodation for the nursing staff, in consequence of extensions to the hospital's working premises. A new home for nurses was erected at Hampstead, and it was decided that, as they had to attend the hospital at various times during the day, the most economical plan would be for the hospital to run its own coaches.
The council purchased, in June last, two Dalmlei 32-seaters, which have since been in service seven days per week, and we are informed that no involuntary stop has been experienced.
The secretary of Charing Cross Hospital has informed the Daimler Co., Ltd., that, when the remaining wing of the Hampstead home has been completed, it may be necessary to purchase another coach or two.
NOT CONTRACT WORK.
ANOTHER contract-carriage case was heard at Barton, last week, as a sequel to a trip to the Blackpool illuminations. Mr. J. Stevenson, of Uttoxeter, the operator of the coach concerned, and Miss I. A. May, of Horning;ow, the organizer of the party, were Prosecuted on behalf of the West Midm40
land Traffic Commissioners, for illegal running, and the magistrates ordered each defendant to pay .C.2 2s. costs.
Mr. Stevenson hired out a 32-seater coach for i13 3s. 6d., and each passenger paid 8s. 6d., although the operator was, he said, not aware of the charge made. It was stated that licensed concerns were running trips to. Blackpool for 12s. 6d. Miss May said that the party consisted of personal friends and that some people were prevented from participating in the trip because they were not friends of her family.
The magistrates held that it was not a case of contract working within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act, and, therefore, a road-service licence was required.
NORTHERN BUS MERGER. IT is reported that the Motor Supply 'Co., Ltd. of Bishop Auckland, has acquired the Cowshill-Stanhope service operated by Mr. J. Stockdale, of Eastgate. The company is placed in a position of monopoly in Upper Weardale.
NEW COMPANY FORMED.
A PRIVATE company has been regis tered under the title of Scout Motor Services, Ltd., to acquire the coach and bns business of Messrs. J. Watkinson (Scout Motor Services), Preston. The capital of the company is £5,000 in n shares.
OPERATORS ASKED TO USE COACH STATION.
THE watch committee of Cheltenham Corporation has decided to follow a suggestion of the West Midland Traffic Commissioners that it should circularize operators of excursions and tours making a halt in the town, asking v them to use the Black and White Coach Station or other suitable garage.
The municipality requested the use of this station to be made a licence condition, but the Commissioners replied that they had no power to do so. MANY DEMANDS BY SCOTTISH BUS EMPLOYEES.
MANY demands were to be made by
Scottish bus employees at an annual conference, at Edinburgh, yesterday, of the Transport and General Workers' Union.
Glasgow Corporation transport employees require a six-hour day, and request the executive to take steps to have carbon-monoxide poisoning scheduled as an industrial disease under the Workmen's Compensation Act. It is also urged that the recent reduction of 2s. per week in the wages of the municipal-transport employees should be restored. Self-starters for all buses, and mechanical starters in all municipal garages, are amongst ether demands.
The Lanarkshire branches suggest that a maximum week of 48 hours, with a minimum wage of is. 4d. per hour for drivers and 10d. per hour for conductors, would materially assist in absorbing employees who have lost work as the result of a recent amalgamation.
The Ayr branches require that the existing wage agreement for Scotland should be terminated. Other proposals include the prohibition of standing passengers on buses, payment at the rate of time-and-a-quarter for overtime, and the compulsory provision of speedometers on all public-service vehicles.
DEFICIT ON BELFAST BUSES.
A REPORT on the trading of Belfast
Corporation's bus undertaking during the six months ended September 30 last shows a deficit of £10,955, the loss being attributed largely to an abnormal charge under the heading of compensation.
The passengers carried numbered 53,554,194, as compared with 56,431,903 a year earlier, whilst 4,466,036 bus-miles were run, as compared with 4,510,261. During the period under review, six new 52-seater buses were purchased and two new experimental services were inaugurated.
GREYHOUND COMPANY ABSORBS MORNING STAR COACHES.
IT is understood that the long-distance organization of E. Jones and Sons, Ltd. (trading. as Morning Star Coaches), of Bristol, has been acquired by Greyhound Motors, Ltd., of that toWn.
The Morning Star concern operates from London to Paignton and to Bristol, and from Bristol to Paignton. It is stated that all these services will be continued by the Greyhound concern, with certain modifications, whilst some of the Morning Star vehicles will be taken over.
SWINDON ISSUES DISCOUNT TICKETS.
ON Monday last, Swindon Corpora tion commenced to issue prepaid 'discount tickets on all services. As an example of rates charged, a book of 12 Id. tickets may be purchased for 1041., and a book of six 3d. tickets costs is. 3d.
SCOTTISH BUS ORDER.
AN order for six A.E.C. Regal buses has just been placed by the Scottish' Motor Traction Co., Ltd., which already operates 79 Regal machines. Of its subsidiary companies, W. Alexander and Son, Ltd., has one Regal vehicle in daily service, the Midland Omnibus concern runs three oil-engined models, Messrs. Currie and Thomuon have one vehicle of that type, whilst Greenock Motor Services operates six such buses.
NEW CO-ORDINATED SERVICES.
ON January 1, Red and White Ser vices. Ltd., and MacShane's Motors, Ltd., commenced to operate a coordimated daily service from London to Liverpool, issuing interchangeable tickets. As already announced in The Commercial Motor, the charts for MaeSha.ne's Motors, Ltd., are now held by the General Travel Agency (London), Ltd., Which has also taken up the charts for the Painirose service to Chelmsford.
RIBBLE RENTS STATION.
SOUTHPORT Corporation has granted a 10 years' lease of the Esplanade bus station to Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., at a rental of 1680 per annum, the corporation to construct the buildings and lay out the station in accordance with the plane approved by the Ministry of Transport. The authority is to pay all rates, taxes and outgoings.
The company is to maintain the station in good repair, to take the receipts and to provide the staff.
WIRELESS ON ALL FINGLAND COACHES.
WE are able to announce that Pingland's Hire Cars, Ltd., Manchester, is equipping all its coaches and some of its private-hire cars with Spartan seven valve . wireless-receiving sets. The apparatus is carried under the driver's seat and may be controlled from the steering column.
So far, only one or two coaches have wireless facilities, but we are told that, already, passengers are making special requests to travel on those vehicles.
"TRAVEL BY ROAD" PROGRESS.
ON Wednesday afternoon last, a meet, ing was held in London to consider the netivities of the "Travel by Road" Campaign. The chair was taken by Mr. R. Claxton, of Fingland's .flire Cars, Ltd., who suggested that sub-committees should be formed throughout the country to hold meetings to ascertain what support could be obtained for the project, and Mr. P. A. Walker, of the Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association, Ltd., agreed to ask the local associations affiliated to the parent organization to take up the matter. So far, it is proposed to spend about 1200 on publicity purposes.
A provisional meeting has been fixed for January 18, at 69, Southampton. Row, W.C.2.
SUPPORT FOR BUS CO.
TOTTENHAM Urban District Coun
cil has agreed to support the application of Universal Coaches, Ltd., to operate a bus service from Green Lanes to the High Road, Tottenham, via St. Ann's Road.,
SOUTHEND CO-ORDINATION SCHEME NOW OPERATING.
THE scheme for the co-ordination of municipal and private bus services in Southend came into effect on January 1. The heads of agreement were published in our issue dated August 2 last, and the companies concerned are Westcliff Motor Services, Ltd., Edwards Hall Motors, Ltd., and Borough Services, Ltd., Briefly, the effect of the arrangement is that the companies withdraw five services, public requirements being met by the municipal system. In one case, corporation buses are introduced in place of those withdrawn. Mr. Ronald A. Fearnley, Southend Corporation's transport manager, tells us that the agreement promises to be of big advantage to the municipal system.
SOUTHDOWN TRAFFIC MANAGER RETIRES.
WE understand that Mr. F. J. Man tell, Brighton traffic manager of Southdown Motor Services, Ltd., retired last Saturday. Mr. Mantell commenced in business with one horsed cab, and, later, coaches were purchased. In 1914, he sold his business to the Brighton and Hove Bus Co., and became traffic manager of that company. In 1916, the organization was sold to Thomas Tilling, Ltd., and in that year, he transferred his attentions to Southdown.
PERFECT CONTROL SCHEME?
IN an advertisement in The Times, on Tuesday last, a London bus driver, giving a box number, claimed to have perfected and patented a scheme for the regulation of coach and bus operation.
"IRISH TRAMWAY CEASES.
KEEN competition from buses, and in
creased costs, are stated to be the chief reasons for the failure of the Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway Co., which last Saturday closed. A.E.C.'S NEW LIFEGUARD FOR BUSES.
FOR many years endeavours have been made to devise a satisfactory type of lifeguard for use at the, front of buses. Tramcars have always been equipped with such devices, and their efficiency has been proved times out of number.
Before the war the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., appealed for suggestions for a bus lifeguard, and many thousands of designs were submitted and tested, but they all involved fitting the guard to far forward that the length of the vehicle was increased beyond the regulation limit.
The standard lifeguard equipment on tramcars, which has been in use almost without alteration for upwards of 25 years, needs at least 6 ft. of space between the front wheels and the front of the vehicle. Now that the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., has constructed a double-decker in which the front wheels are set back to this extent it has been found possible, for the first time, to fit a lifeguard, such as that adopted for tramcar service.
During the past six months this lifeguard has been tested, redesigned and re-,?sted, until it is now completely efficient in its working. It was recently successfully tested by the Ministry of Transport, but its general adoption is delayed until regulations can be amended The new A.E.C. vehicle referred to is .known as the Q-type. and was briefly described in our issues dated September 9 and October 14.
STEP NEARER BUS STATION.
THE oft-discussed question of pro viding a central bus station at Swansea was again raised at the latest meeting of Swansea Watch Committee, and a practical step towards the realization of this project is to be taken.
It was decided that the chief constable should interview all the bus proprietors to ascertain how much they would contribute to maintain a station.
PROTECTION TO BE CONSIDERED.
THE North-Western Traffic Commis sioners announce that, at their sitting at Manchester, an January 11, they will consider the protection afforded to the tramways and bus undertaking of Burnley Corporation.
IMPORTANT CONTRACT-TICKET DECISION.
A DECISION has been reached by
the Northern Traffic Commissioners on the question of private operators issuing contract tickets over the routes of Middlesbrough and Stockton Corporations and the Tees-side Railless Traction Board.
The Commissioners stressed the principle of protection for Middlesbrough Corporation. Amongst other things, the Commissioners stipulated that no season or contract tickets should be issued that were solely available for the area covered by the Teesside Railless Traction Board, the county borough of Middlesbrough and the borough of Stockton.
Season or contract tickets available for travel to or from points within the boundary of Middlesbrough are to be issued at the existing rates, except those based on a 3d. single fare. GOVERNMENT BUS SERVICES TO BE SOLD.
AS, in spite of the most drastic re
organization, the bus services operated by the Austrian Post Office and the Federal Railways will again show a loss this year, it is understood that the Government intends to transfer all its bus interests to private hands. Negotiations are said to be proceeding with a foreign financial group. As a basic condition of the sale, the Austrian Government demands the maintenance a of the present services over about 7,000 idioms.
MORE BUSES FOR TRAMS.
DECISIONS to substitute buses for trams on the routes from Shelf to Northowram and Halifax to Hove Edge have been made by the Halifax Tramways Committee, subject to the approval of the town council.
PRIZES FOR BEST-KEPT P.S.V:S.
AN interesting and useful competition has recently been held in Rome under the auspices of the Sindicato Faseista Autisti Pubblichi di Roma e Provincia, prizes being awarded for the publicservice vehicles kept in the best condition.
The competition was confined to vehicles registered prior to December 31, 1931, and, in awarding the prizes, re gard was had, amongst other matters, to the state of preservation of the bodywork, the cleanliness of the vehicle, the refinements in the way of varnishing and upholstery, and the safety of the vehicle from the ;users' point of view, particularly in relation to the adoption of unbreakable windscreens and windows.
TRANSPORT OF SCHOOLCHILDREN.
DEVON Education Committee invites tenders for the conveyance of scholars from a nramber of places to the Kings bridge Council School. Details and forms of tender are obtainable from the secretary to the committee, The Castle, Exeter.