PASSENGER TRAVEL NEWS.
Page 66
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srsURINU the past four or five years the Liverpool Corporation has been gradually developing its fleet of motorbuses, and at the present time about 30 vehicles of this type are in service. At the same time there have been rapid tievelopments in the ramifications of the tramways undertaking, and this led to the October meeting of the city council passing a resolution calling upon the general manager of the tramways department to report on the question of the extension of the bus services as against the extension of the tramways services. This report was presented to the Liverpool City Council at its meeting on December 1st, but before dealing with it, we might usefully refer to the traffic returns for the last completed munigiPal year. During this time the oorporation's fleet of motorbuses carried about six million passengers, travelled 510,000 miles and earned Is. 6.74d. per mile as against is. 7.09d. earned by the tramways.
In his report, Mr. P. Priestly, the general manager, states that the motorbus has been very considerably improved during the past three or four years, and is a useful vehicle as a feeder to the tramway system and to run upon routes where the traffic, is not such as to warrant the expenditure required for laying a tramways permanent way, but, in his opinion, it cannot in any way compete with the tramcar for dealing with the enormous number of people travelling during the traffic peak loads. Liverpool, it is stated, requires approximately 580 cars during this period to carry the people in and out of the city, whereas, based on the. carrying -capacity .of the respective -types of vehicle, it would require nearly 900
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motorbuses, or an increase of about 50 per cent. It would necessitate a big increase in the vehicle mileage, and, therefore, a much higher cost to deal with the same number of-people.
Mr. Priestly has something to say concerning congestion and how it is affected by the bus and the tramcar, and adds that the road space taken up per Passenger carried is nearly 30 per cent. more with a motorbus thania tramcar.
The proposal is often made to scrap, the tramways in favour of motorbuses. It is well to consider, says Mr. Priestly, what would be the position in Liverpool if this were done. The tramways. undertaking has a capital of nearly £3,000,000, and if the undertaking were
scrapped 'this would not do away with the payments for Interest and sinking fund, which would have to be made from the revenue of the motorbus services. In addition, there would have to be new capital expenditure on the purchase of motorbuses, which would have to be re' paid in between 7 and 10 years, as this is about the average life of a motor vehicle, as against 15 to 20 years for a tramcar.
Again, owing to the tramway lines being laid in the streets, the tramways system pays approximately £45,000 per annum in rates. In addition to this about £.50,000 per annum is spent upon road maintenance. The expenditure on roads would have to be paid out of the rates, so that a total of £95,000 per annum (equal to nearly 4d. in the £) would have to be met by the general rates of the city, instead of, as at the moment, being paid by the tramways undertaking.
Attention is also drawn to the fact that the tramways department is also one of the largest consumers of elec...rieal energy in the city, and paid last year to the electric supply department nearly £200,000 for current, so that if tramways were scrapped that department would lose a very considerable source of revenue.
The general manager thinks that it will be agreed that to substitute motor bus services for the tramways system would not be a sound or economical proposition. The motorbus could not be run on the present cheap fares enjoyed by train riders. The present fare on tramways is approximately .5d. per mile.
The fare which would have to be charged on the motorbue would be about .75d. per mile. The City of London is often quoted when the question of tramways and buses is under consideration. It must be borne in mind that, whilst London has a regular service of motor buses during the whole of the day, the peak loads of traffic are taken by the' Underground railway systems. This fact, he asserts, is often overlooked when the traffic in the City of London is mentioned.
Liverpool has gone farther ahead with the tramways system than in any other city, having laid 40 miles of grass enclosed track, and having had a higher speed sanctioned by the Ministry of Transport than any other tramways undertaking, in the country. In the opinion of Mr. Priestly, the congestion and delays in the streets are not due to the running of the tramways, but to the fact that practically all traffic comes down to what may be called the centre of the city, but is really one side of the city. There are only two main routes, i.e., Lord Street-Church Street and Dale Street, along Which the traffic can pro ceed. The general manager is fully alive to the necessity for getting the
people in and out of the city as quickly as possible, and has already advised the
committee of the necessity of purchasing a further number of buses to supplement and to act as feeders to the tramways system.
With regard to certain of the pro posed tramway extensions, whilst powers to construct have.been asked for in the Corporation Bill, it does not mean that tramways are bound to be laid immediately. The committee might con sider that motorbuses would meet the re quirements until such times as the population increases in the districts which it is proposed to serve, when a tramway line could be laid. It has been found, says Mr. Priestly, that when the traffic warrants more than a 15-minute service, it is more economical to run tramways than motorbuses.
In concluding, the general manager says that, whilst the motorbus has proved a very useful and efficient vehicle, it cannot, under present conditions, compete with the tramcar in deal ing with the rush-hour truffle, or in giving cheap fares for long-distance travelling, nor from a safety point of view, as the braking efficiency of a tramcar is the highest of all vehicles, but, of course, this compariscm may refer to bases equipped with brakes on the rear wheels only.