Yorkshire Passenger Services Call for Co-ordination
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THE passenger-transport network of undertakings in the industrial areas of the north—which seems so complex to people engaged in the industry in other parts of England—has grown up as a. result of the localized nature of transport enterprise in these areas in the past. This state of affairs is, perhaps, even more apparent in Yorkshire than in the adjoining counties.
During the 50 or so years, prior to the commencement of the great war, the Yorkshire manufacturing towns spread rapidly and, in a period in which most areas of the country were content to rely on railways and their legs for transport, local transport, supplementary to the rail services, was necessary in a score of Yorkshire towns.
The parochial outlook was at its strongest in that period and the consequence was that every city and town developed its own tramway system. An excellent example of this is the case of the neighbouring cities of Leeds and Bradford, the boundaries of which adjoin and the centres of which are only 10 miles apart. , Of the tramway systems thus laid down, several were municipally owned, e.g.: Leeds, Bradford, Halifax; Huddersfield, Todmorden, Keighley, York, Doncaster and Rotherham. In addition, several local companies provided tramway services; these were as follow: The West Riding Co., at Wakefield; the Yorkshire Woollen District Tramways (now Transport Co.) , at Dewsbury; Barnsley Traction Co. (now Yorkshire Traction Co.); The National Electric Construction Co., Dewsbury to Ossett; Mexborough and Swinton Tramways.
A late arrival—the Dearne Valley Joint Board, a combination of local authorities—instituted a tramway service from Barnsley along the Dearne Valley, in comparatively recent years.
Mexborough and Swinton Tramways has remained an essentially local under. taking, and the Dewsbury-Ossett undertaking is now, no more, but the other companies mentioned, on the advent of motorbuses, entered the bus industry and have all developed in their respective districts until they, together with the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., and Hebble Motor Services, Ltd., now cover the entire West Riding area with an intensive network of local services. The close proximity of local centres in Yorkshire has, however, meant that each company's "exclusive " area is comparatively small.
The West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., never operated tramways, but, as the Harrogate and District Road Car Co., Ltd., it first entered business to provide purely local bus services in the town of Harrogate, and its development has been similar to that of the other companies named. The remaining "associated " bus company in the district—Hebble Motor Services, 'Ltd., of Halifax—commenced activities as a private bus company after the war. • Overlapping Occurs.
These companies overlap with each other, and with municipal systems. Broadly speaking, however, the West Yorkshire Co. covers the area to the north of Leeds, westwards to Bradford and Skipton and eastwards to York and Scarborough. The West Riding company's area is south of Leeds, extending to Bradford and eastwards to Selby and Goole. Southwards again is the Yorkshire Traction group of services, centred on Barnsley and extending to the south, as far as the Sheffield Joint Committee's area. Hebble Motor Services operates to the west of all these groups.
With the development of the travel habit in post-war years, extreme localization was no longer practicable and the large number of substantial undertakings demanded co-ordination. In consequence, some unique and interesting schemes have been developed, but, before discussing these. reference should be made to the effect that tram-abandonment has had on the position. Of the companies. Mexborough and Swinton Tramways now operates trolleybuses only, in co-ordination with the neighbouring Rotherham Corporation. The Wakefield, Barnsley
and Dewsbury systems have all been replaced by buses by their respective companies. In addition, the Yorkshire Woollen District Transport Co.now operates a bus service in replacement of the National Electric Construction Co.'s Dewsbury-Ossett tramways and the Yorkshire Traction Co.has made a similar replacement for the Dearne Valley tramivays. There are, consequently, now no company-owned tramways in Yorkshire,
Buses Replace Trams, Of the corporations, Leeds has replaced all its outlying tramway routes to neighbouring towns, and certain less heavily trafficked city services, by buses. Bradford• has used both trolley and motor buses to replace tramcars and replacements of the remaining tram routes are likely within the next few years. Halifax has completed replacement of tramcars by buses and Huddersfield by trolleybuses. Todrnorden scrapped its trams and substituted buses some years ago. At Keighley and York, buses are now operated by joint undertakings representative of the municipal authorities and the West Yorkshire company (Keighley-West Yorkshire Services, Ltd., and York-West Yorkshire Joint Committee). Doncaster Corporation has replaced its tramways with trolleybuses, and so has Rotherham Corporation, except for the route to Sheffield, We turn, now, to some of the various schemes of co-ordination in operation in Yorkshire How the Schemes Operate.
The trunk route, Sheffield-BarnsleyWakefieldo,Leeds, brings into conjunction the West Riding and Yorkshire Traction companies and the Sheffield
Joint Committee. Another lengthy route is the Huddersfield-BradfordIlkley service, providing throughtravel from many thickly populated districts to Ilkley Moor, and operated jointly hy the West Yorkshire and Yorkshire Woollen District companies,
It is also interesting to observe that 'independent undertakings work services; jointly with " combine" corn.panies in several instances, Tlie expansion of the West Yorkshire Road Car Co.'s services into the rural areas north and east of Harrogate and York, has brought it into touch with United Automobile Services, . Ltd. (which has had a depot at Ripon for many years, and another district centre at Scarborough), and with East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd. The Harrogate-Ripon route is a joint service of " United" and "West Yorkshire." The East Yorkshire Co.'s Hull-York service was extended to Leeds, by arrangement with the West Yorkshire Co., a deeade ago, and a through twohourly service has since been maintained jointly.
The " United " did not operate any local Service§ into 'Leeds until some two tears ago, when the Whitby-York servi e was linked with certain York Leeds local journeys of the " West Yorkshire" and the through-service is now operated jointly.
The Leeds-York-Bridlington services have for some time been operated on -similar lines by the West and East Yorkshire companies, so by co-operation with outer district companies the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., now provides local services to the coast at Whitby, Scarborough, Bridlington and -Hull, of which only the Scar. borough service concerns it alone,
There. are many instances of company and municipal co-ordination.
An article on co-ordination in Yorkshire would not be complete without some reference to the long-distance services from the, area, operated by pools " of operators, The most striking instance is the " limited stop or " northern" pool, operated jointly by the West Yorkshire and Yorkshire Woollen District companies, two Lancashire companies (" North Western" and "Lancashire United "), and two northern companies (" United" and "Northern General "). The service runs every hour from Liverpool, via Manchester, Huddersfield and Leeds, to Ripon, thence diverging, alternative coaches running to Darlington and Newcastle and to Middlesbrough (extended to Redcar in the summer).
The "Yorkshire Services."
The four principal Yorkshire cornpanics—" West Yorkshire," "York shire Woollen District," Yorkshire Traction " and '.` East Yorkshire," combine with East Midland Motor Services, Ltd., to provide a network of services from Newcastle and the Yorkshire towns to Birmingham and from Yorkshire to London. Coaches from various parts of Yorkshire converge at Barnsley and thence diverge again to proceed southwards by different routes. This is " Yorkshire Services."
Two years ago, a somewhat similar scheme, "Yorkshire-Blackpool Services," was inaugurated to co-ordinate services from the West Riding Area to Blackpool. This differed from the two other coaching pools, in that it was not an entirely voluntary scheme. It was developed by the Traffic Coinmissioners, from a scheme introduced by the associated companies, so as to bring in several independent companies. Nine companies are rftnv associated in this scheme.