THE BUS SERVICES OF PARIS.
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The French Capital, Where the Omnibus First Saw the Light, is Well Served by a Fleet of Nearly 1,400 Public Service Vehicles.
THE idea a public passenger transport in cities is essentially French in its origin. The first omnibus on record was produced by Pascal in the days of Louis XIV, whilst a fact that may not be generally remembered in these days is that our own London General Omnibus Co. was started with French capital and under French direction..
°Dianthuses came into general use in Paris shortly after the close of the Napoleonic wars, and by 1828 quite a number were in service. At this time the English law did not allow vehicles to pick up and set down passengers in the streets, and the coming of the London omnibus was delayed by a legal absurdity exactly as in the case of the automobile some 70 years later. It is true that Shillibeer ran an omnibus from PaddingtOn to the Bank in 1829, but this vehicle was in the nature of an " express " bus. Passengers were supposed to make the whole trip and were charged a shilling.
The Compagnie Generale des Omnibus de Paris was formed in 1855-by a fusion of all the various bus enterprises in the city. . Although now incorporated in the great municipal transport concern known as the T.C.R.P., the company still retains a great deal of its individuality.. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that the managing director of the old Paris General Omnibus Co. became chief of the great passenger transport combine on the second fusion in 1920. At that time the six existing surface transport concerns of Paris, including buses, trams and light railways, joined forces in order to avoid immediate bankruptcy, and then sold themselves as a whole to the Municipal Council of the Seine Departement under a curious 30-year contract. -The horse omnibuses of Paris never quite reached the level of comfort for passengers which was to ba found in the old London bus. Even in the big 40-seater omnibuses drawn by three 'horses abreast, tile last type in use before the arrival of the motor omnibus, the topdeck seating had not progressed beyond the knifeboard stage.
The first Paris motor omnibuses were put into service in 1906. They were 32-seater two-deckers, mounted on a Brillie-Schneider chassis. This chassis gave quite good service; it had a four-cylinder engine, with separate cylinders 125 mm. by 140 mm., and splash lubrication. The top deck of these buses had knifeboard seating, and a fixed wooden canopy with a canvas fringe all round, something like an ice-cream barrow. After
D48 the first half-dozen of these buses had been delivered, a weather screen with glass windows was added at the front of the upper deck.
Many people have the idea that two-decker buses are now forbidden by law to operate in France. This is not the case at all. One of the chief reasons which the Paris Bus Co. had for dropping the two-decker was a certain difficulty in the collection of fares. While the
conductor was up on top the inside passengers were liable to fade gently away without paying. At a risk of endangering the entente cordiale, it must be admitted that a certain section of the Paris travelling public are confirmed bilkers. So much is this the case that,
actually, within the last fortnight, the directors of the T.d.R.P. have applied to the Prefecture of Police to have the assistance of plain-clothes officers, who would mingle with the passengers on trams and buses to watch for fare dodgers. In asking for this concession, the directors stated that they were losing over 20 per cent. of their rightful income through fare bilking. This is probably an naggeration, but the amount of money lost is undoubtedly very serious. • The request-for plain-clothes police was really the result of a question and answer in the Municipal Council recently. A councillor asked the Prefect of Police whether the T.C.R.P. inspectors had any right . to obstruct the general traffic by standing in the roadway at a bus or tram halt and ordering descending passengers to show their tickets. M. Morain replied that the practice was quite illegal ; it is certainly a most annoying one.
Another and rather amusing reason for the dropping of the two-decker dates from the very early days of the motorbus. Upon the Inauguration of a new line, a party of city officials, deputes and others, were invited to make a trial run. The most distinguished and im portant of the visitors were given seats on top, the smaller fry _ going inside the bus. When half-way through the trip, a violent storm of rain and hail came on, with a horizontal cross-wind blowing half a gale. Since then the " autobus a imperiale" has been under a permanent cloud. It is no use telling the Council that it "ain't gwine ter rain no mo " ; they will not believe you. It is interesting to note that the old two-deeker Paris buses and many of the early single-deckers are still running and giving public service in the French colonies, particularly in Algeria and the North African provinces.
Amongst the early single-deckers was a number of 26 and 34-seaters with side-entrance bodies. The second-class accommodation was arranged forward and the first-class aft, with a wide, open-sided gangway 'amidships. These bodies were very soon scrapped, as the central entrance proved unsatisfactory. The crowding of the central gangway with standing passen
gem made it difficult for the conductor to get from one end of the bus to the other. There was a consequent less owing to non-collection of fares. This was, of course, especially the case during the peak hours, or, as the T.C.R.P. still calls them with unconscious irony in its notices, "the hours of affluence," when the congestion is really severe.
The present-day type of Paris bus body with first-class compartment in front, second-class art the back, and a large overhanging platform at the rear, was evolved about 1911 to 1912. By July, 1914, the horse omnibus had disappeared, and the company owned a fleet of 1,045 motor omnibuses made up as follows : 685 35seater Schneider buses, 263.31-seater De Dion-Bouton buses, and 97 30-seater Brillie-Schneider buses. The last-mentioned vehicles were old stock in process of elimination.
Upon the outbreak of war the entire fleet, to the last vehicle, was requisitioned by the War Department. Some were used without alteration for the transport of troops, others were transformed into workshop lorries, travelling staff offices, etc.
During the period of hostilities, the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus, which by this time possessed its own works, continued the construction of an improved Schneider-type chassis fitted with a new engine. A number of these new chassis, fitted with various types of body, were delivered to the army, whilst at the same time a further series of chassis was put in band with a view to reconstituting the omnibus service of Paris. By June, 1916, it was found possible to re-open the Madeleine-Bastille line after the city had been practically two years without a single omnibus. Thenceforward, further efforts were made to deliver buses and, by the Armistice, the four principal lines of Paris were running again.,
After the war a number of omnibuses was repurchased from the army, including very many vehicles which had been taken off the streets in 1914, and were Still running! With the aid of these veterans, and the new rolling stock, the services were rapidly opened up again, and by the end of 1919, 25 of the original 43 lines were running—a fine achievement in 13 months.
With the delivery of new buses during 1920, 13 further lines were re-established, and by the end of 1921 the full pre-war service of 43 lines had been exceeded by the creation of many fresh ones.
The present H-type Paris omnibus, and its big brother the HO type, which is a six-wheeler, were developed during 1921 and 1922. These buses are interesting from the fact that they are not merely the types of yesterday and to-day, but the standard types of omnibus which will be seen in Paris for many years to come.
The Paris buses of 1936 will in all human probability be the present H and HO types. Republics may fall and new empires rise, but the design of the Paris motor omnibus, like that of the Ford car, will remain unchanged. There are two reasons for this; one is the intense conservatism of the French official mind, and the other is simply a permanent lack of funds wherewith to inaugurate changes.
The original managing staff of the Paris General Omnibus Co. were taken over on the formation of the T.C.R.P., and they are given a fairly free hand in the Internal administration of their own particular section of the combine. At the same time, it must be remembered that the T.C.R.P., as a whole, makes a regular annual loss of nearly three quarters of a million sterling. This has to be met out of the rates, and there is not much money left f6r experiments after the shareholders in the old companies have received their "dividends."
One attempt only has been made by the omnibus
directors since the war to launch out in a new direction. This was in the case of the express buses. The venture proved a failure, a fact which is not likely to encourage the Council to authorize the making of further experiments.
With regard to the omnibuses built for express work, a use has been found for some of these by putting them to work on some of the suburban lines where the passenger traffic is not heavy. They take up and put down passengers at all the usual stopping points, and the driver collects the fares. This fare collection means delay at the stops, but the delay is usually made up for by the high speed of the buses When they get going.
Turning to the standard Hype Paris bus, one cannot help feeling thar the directors are right in their view that they have got hold of a good thing and should stick to it. Externally, the bus is almost indistinguishable from the Schneider buses of 1912 to 1914. Like most of its predecessors, it has an overtype chassis. The engine has separate cylinders 105 film. by 150 mm., a five bearing crankshaft and superimposed valves. The overhead inlet valves are operated by push-rods and rockers. One camshaft actuates both, sets of valves. The lubrication arrangements are excellent, and include a proper oiling of the overhead gear for the inlet valves. The engine is governed to 1,000 r.p.m., at which speed it develops about 34 h.p. A vertical shaft at the front of the engine drives the oil pump, water pump, magneto, governor and lighting dynamo ; this shaft is driven by the same helicoidal pinion on the crankshaft, which drives the camshaft. The cylinders are offset 15 mm. in relation to the crankshaft. The entire engine has been designed with a view to easy dismounting and reassembling. It certainly gives the most remarkable service.
The HO-type omnibus is the big six-wheeler familiar to all visitors to Paris during recent years. This vehicle has proved highly successful on certain routes Where the passenger traffic is very heavy, as it carries 48 people including those on the rear platform. Apart from the rear end, which is borne upon trailing wheels connected up to the steering gear, the chassis is identical with that of the standard H type, and the same design of engine is used in both. The inter-connected steering has proved quite satisfactory in practice, and the bus can be turned in a 25-ft. 6-in. radius. The H-type omnibus carries 38 passengers, counting four only, the regtila.tion number, on the platform. '
During peak hours the platform of this type of bus often carries about 11, but this appears to make no difference to the running of the bus. In the case of the six-wheelers there must often be as many as 60 people on board, counting the driver. .
The Paris bus services are splendidly maintained in spite of an insufficiency of rolling stock. The present fleet comprises between 1,300 and 1,400 buses, but the T.C.R.P. could do with another 500, to cope with the constantly increasing passenger traffic. The enormously increased foreign population, both floating and resident, has certainly added its quota to the burden which the buses have to carry every day.