Tramcars or Motor Omnibuses ?
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We give no support to the view that electric traction is doomed. It is only reasonable to admit that, for any city with a population exceeding a quarter of a million, electric tramcars wilt always find sufficient traffic support to provide a return to cover the heavy capital expenditure on track construction. It is quite certain that tramway schemes will be proceeded with in many large towns, with benefit and advantage to the inhabitants, whilst the suggestion that existing investments in tramway undertakings are to any extent jeopardised by the advent of motor omnibuses is largely chimerical. We recognise the enormous benefits which electric traction has conferred upon the poorer section of the community of our great cities in particular at a time when no alternative presented itself for consideration at the hands of the authorities concerned. We also accept the claim of tramway men, based upon returns extending over some years, that average earnings of iod. per car mite are sufficient to meet all expenses, including sinking fund and estimated depreciation. The kernel of the problem lies in finding towns and routes where an insufficient number of electric tramcar miles per mile of track could be run to make a return on the heavy capital outlay for permanent way and equipment. In such localities motor omnibuses will be unassailable, and it is a little startling to find that they are already carrying passengers in London and elsewhere, after charging depreciation at the rate of 25 per cent, per annum, and after maintaining the vehicles in thoroughly good running order, at less than tram costs. These results augur well for the adoption of motor propulsion in preference to electric traction in many cases. The great saving on capital account, which may vary from one-third to three-quarters according to the pro.. portion which track construction bears to the whole in any scheme, gives the motor omnibus its first great advantage financially. Then, it is useless for advocates of electric traction loftily to dismiss the motor omnibus on the score that it "carries only half the number of passengers and costs double as much per mile run." Such a statement is entirely contrary to facts. A series of records taken during the busiest hours of the day in various towns disproves the view that successive tramcars are loaded to their full capacity. Any such continuous crushing is always associated
with holidays, or with such events as football matches, and it is capable of demonstration that four 36-seated omnibuses can do the work of three 70-seated tramcars. The fallacy that two omnibuses are required to do the work of one tramcar should be challenged and denied wherever uttered. On the score of cost, the suggestion that a 7o-seated tramcar can be worked at sid. per car mile, compared with I id. for a 36-seated motor omnibus, is a deliberate case of begging the question. Where does any such tramway system exist? If we take Liverpool as a typical case, we find the total operating costs are shown as 6.88d. per car mile, to which 2.o9d. per car mile has to be added for interest and sinking fund, This makes the total charges 8.97d. per car mile, but that figure is arrived at after debiting a sum equal to only 8.4 per cent, on the capital involved for interest, depreciation, sinking fund, reserve and renewals combined. Taking the stated cost as it stands, it is by no means in agree. ment with the claim made on behalf of electric traction by its over-zealous supporters.
The Van Trials.
We published in our issue of April 6th a diary of proceedings at the Automobile Club in regard to the preliminary arrangements for the light van trials. The progress there recorded covered a period extending from October 15th, xeox, and gave evidence of no particular degree of alacrity. We were able to publish, a month ago, the " provisional " regulations for the trials which the Club intends to hold in September, the competition embracing light delivery vans capable of carrying all weights from zoolb. to 3ocwt. Taking into consideration the fact that the interval between the announcement of these provisional conditions and the date of the trials is little more than three months, it is anything but a healthy sign that practically a third of the period has been allowed to elapse without the smallest signs of life on the part of the Club or its officials. It is a peculiar fact that the. Club does not seem to possess the faculty of affording the Press of the country information regarding its procedure, and this apparent inclination to hide its light under a bushel is certainly a disadvantage for the industry in respect of a competition of the character in question. The French Club is pursuing a very different course, as we have pointed out time after time. Its motto seems to be " publicity at all costs," which compares most favourably with the policy of silence pursued by the English Club The organisation of the trials will fail, in a relative sense, unless the Club immediately wakens up to the urgent necessity for action. It is not enough to send out the conditions barely marked "with the secretary's compliments," because the general Press requires a short synopsis or a suitable covering letter summarising the salient points. We are obliged to say that we look at the Club's management of the preliminaries for this competition with some feelings of alarm, and there is little doubt that all rraembers of the commercial motor industry expect a disclosure of the programme without further delay. It is useless to put isolated paragraphs in the Club journal, for that source of information is open to comparatively few readers and is seldom quoted by the Press. Unless a strong propaganda in support of the trials is initiated forthwith, we do not hesitate to say that their value will be reduced to the point of insignificance. Should this occur, the Club will sacrifice its claim to a voice in such matters.