A CLOSED CHAPTER OF MOTORBUS HISTORY.
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RECENT NEWS SHEETS have contained brief notices, perhaps mercifully overshadowed by the portentous world events which have crammed the columns of every morning and evening edition, of the termination of the trial at the Old Bailey of two men concerned in the flotation of certain motorbus undertakings, which, at the time when they were receiving the ambitious measure of publicity which their designs secured for them, caused a deal of sensation, not only throughout the commercial-vehicle world, but in general business and financial circles as well. It is nowoncern or wish of mine to add further to the ignominy of these two men who have now been brought to book, but I am, by their trial and sentences, forcefully reminded of some of the several schemes with which they were from time to time associated.
In July, 1913, all kinds of newspapers and periodicals were plastered with picturesque Jules Vernelike propheciei of what the special motor-omnibus organizations that were to be floated by these people were to do in respect of the improvement of internal passenger-transport services and facilities in this country. I must admit that, after reading these company-promoting announcements, I was left utterly cold, convinced of the basic impracticability of much of the schemes they outlined. I was astonished to find but little destructive criticism in the Press of these plans, which were so skilfully intended to interest the smaller investor. England particularly was to be enmeshed from t Newcastle , to Nevequay, from Ffolyhead to Hastings, with a network of interconnected motorbus services which, according to the
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highly imaginative diagrams which accompanied some of the prospectuses, were to render it easy for the population of the country to move motor-wise in any and all directions with the maximum comfort and at a minimum cost. Great centres were to be established in various parts of Britain, and from these there werek to radiate countless motorbus routes as highly dependent upon each other and as closely corelated astthe services of the great organization of the London General Omnibus Co., at towhich concern no pains were taken by the promoters—of course, without the L.G.O.C. patronage—to hide that its accomplishments were to be the model and the spur of these new efforts.
The schemes initiated by these promoters, of which the General Omnibus Supply Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Greater Omnibus Services, Ltd., were examples, had obviously not been worked out with any practical attempt to discover their feasibility. The scheme was mainly represented by this marvellous map of England and its complicated spider's web of services that were promised in the dim but near future. Services were indicated in districts where no traffic could possibly exist. All sorts of remarkable hints as to the probable development of internal transport in this way were contained in the preliminary prospectuses. The schemes bore the impression of the master mind of the company promoter, but not that of anyone who was acquainted with the working difficelties of the proposals. The net result of the operation of these intended ambitious organizations was utterly trivial, and characterized by entire lack of organization and grip
of the stupendous problems which the public had been led to believe were to be solved in this masterly. way.
It is little likely that we shall ever see a recrudescence of schemes of this nature unless, perchance —and this, indeed, may be quite possible—similar minds get to work to infuse the public to support, with their subscriptions, proposals for vast schemes of inter-connected aircraft commercial transport. If such suggestions for the development of the commercial side of the aeroplane eventuate, it will be well that the fierce light of technical and commercial criticism be made to play upon them before public money is risked once again in similar manner. The commercial-motor industry has experienced the effects of the services of an exceptionally large crop of adventurous company promoters in the past, i
not n connection, as in the early days of the pleasure car, with the manufacture of the machines which were to be used, but with their operation when produced. Many of us can recall the earliest days of the motorbus, long before Harry Lawson and Stuart Curzon got busy, when the London streets were full of all kinds and conditions of chassis masquerading as effective public-passenger carrying motorbus units, when all kinds of people without any experience whatever of traffic, or any other requirements, were having a shot at making money by this alternative to the ancient horsed bus. THE COMMERCIA_L Moron, I remember, used to contain lists of quite a large number, of companies, including not a few which 'were serious endeavours to solve the problem under the difficult conditions prevailing, owing to the absence of suitable chassis and the equivalent suitable business experience. Practically none of these early experiments, however, was of the same kind as the later ones, of which this recent trial has reminded. us. They were mostly far more limited in their scope
and bore at least the imprint of some desire to establish practical businesses. They have all gone ; a number of them were wound up finally long ago, others have been " absorbed " in the one or two great concerns which have weathered the storm, To-day London, and Greater London, too, owns the finest urban motorbus organization in the world, an organization which has been of incalculable benefit to the public as a free-lance rival of the municipally-owned tramway car, that has brought into being the biggest of the whole of Britain's commercial-vehicle factories, that has provided in the country's hours of trial an , invaluable reserve for military requirements, not only in respect of machines, but also of personnel adequately and technically trained.
It is not likely that anYbody will ever be sufficiently interested to devote time to writing a histoey in detail of the development of the motorbus in the Metropolis but if it ever were written, it would be a wonderful tale. The pyrotechnic effort that was made in 1913 to provide the whole of England, urban and raral alike, with services which were to compare in efficiency and comprehensiveness with that bestowed by the L.G.O.C. on the Metropolis, would form an interesting ehapter in such a history, although it had little more effect upon the ultimate developMent of the motorbus and its capabilities than to result in the disappointment of considerable numbers of small investors, who looked to its impracticable schemes as a rapid means of making a, lot of money.
The world has now learned the wonderful lesson of the real possibilities of the commercial motor through the grimmer medium of the war. We are all too well aware of the certain future of the commercial vehicle for the industry to be adversely affected by such attempts to exploit it as those of which the Old Bailey has shown us, let us hope, the last scenes. M.A.O.