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WHY THE DAILYSERVICE COACH SUCCEEDS.

9th February 1926
Page 53
Page 53, 9th February 1926 — WHY THE DAILYSERVICE COACH SUCCEEDS.
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The Advantages of Regular Service Coaches Over Motorbuses in Certain Parts of the Country. The Appeal of Cheap Fares and Non-stop Journeys.

AT one time the daily-service motor coach running strictly to time-table, and making journeys without regard to the number of bookings for any one trip, was regarded as something of a novelty. Whilst this branch of motor coaching has not become commonplace, it has achieved a certain definite establishment which carries with it every season a pronounced goodwill, in that when the season proper starts and the usual publicity schemes are embarked upon, bookings are not so hard to influence, since the public has become accustomed to recognizing that the daily-service coach fulfils all the claims made upon it.

The point now seems to have been reached when, so far as enterprise in this direction is concerned, the motorbus is viewed as a competitor. Superficially it may be, but upon a close examination of the claims to public utility of both types of passenger transport vehicle, it will be found that each has a clear and specific sphere of use. We have in mind the experiences of one company who have operated daily-service coaches for something like six seasons, and the results have been such that they have no hesitation in looking forward with every confidence to another season, notwithstanding the fact that the route on which their vehicles ran is served by motorbuses and is an extremely competitive one for motor coach bookings. Yet the dailyservice coach has more than held its own.

If concern operates both motorbuses and coaches, an organization can be developed whereby one type of vehicle can help the other very materially. For instance, one Lancashire

company, who have a big fleet of buses and a very large number of coaches and who run a daily service to Blackpool with a coach, provide facilities whereby passengers, to whom special tickets are issued, may book through from any point on their bus services to Blackpool. Alternatively, they have an arrangement whereby a similar type of coach is employed to pick up bookings from various parts (agents' booking offices, etc.) of the scattered territory and to convey them to a central location from which the service coach start:T.

If only for economical considerations, passengers very,frequently would be inclined to select the coach in preference to the bus, for, whereas motorbus fares generally work out at about lId. per mile, motor coach journeys can be booked -at as little as -id. per mile for single-seat bookings. This is sober fact, and was exemplified over and over again during the 1925 season, when rates were brought down on one daily coach service run from 7s. 60, to 4s., and afterwards stabilized at 5s. for the 96-mile return journey. It is recognized that most of the leading motorbus companies offer cheap fares to the travelling public—usually the return journey for single fare or single fare and a half—but, notwithstanding this concession, the motor coach can, from the point of view of cheapness, more than hold its own.

Then a word or two needs to be said regarding the duration of the journey& If there be anything that passengers dislike when on pleasure bent it is spending too much time in travelling: Now a motorbus running to time-table, apart from statutory stops in industrial districts, may have a limitless number of "request" stops en route. Not so, however, with the motor coach. It usually loads up first thing and, after calling at the various booking stations, makes a non-stop journey until its destination is reached, perhaps two or two-and-a-half hours later. The time with a pleasant company soon passes.

The motorbus fulfils its purpose in linking up all the intermediate places between terminal and terminal, whilst the motor coach gives direct communi%cation between the point of departUre and the destination. The distinction might appear of little account, yet it ensures for the service motor coach a recognition which it deserves. In drawing up motorbus time-tables consideration must be giv,en to the varying needs and the traffic factor of, may be a very extensive district It must administer to the general good of the greatest number and, whilst provision may be made for holiday traffic, the arrangements can never be so complete as those conceived by the motor coach specialist who caters for an entirely different, a narrower, but more clearly defined, demand.

The favoured vehicle of the motor coach proprietor for daily-service runs is the open type, and this is only to be expected when it is realized that the main traffic is forthcoming on bright .summer days. There seems to be an affinity of interest between the open coach and the open country, and this type of vehicle still commands a very extensive patronage in many districts. Very often 28-seaters running on solid tyres are employed, but many companies In this business are now using the saloon type of coach.

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