G.W.R. ROAD SERVICES HANDED OVER TO ASSOCIATED COMPANIES
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Further Extensions of Roadrail Ticket Interavailability on West-country Routes 'UST too late for inclusion in our a Special Passenger Vehicle Issue of last week, the Great Western Railway Co. has announced two important decisions concerning its road services.
The first is another big extension of the facility of interavailability of rail and road tickets. The return portions of road tickets issued by Greyhound Motors, Ltd., from London, Bristol and Weston-super-Mare to principal towns on that company's coach routes will be available for return by rail. The re turn portion of any ticket so used is to be surrendered to a G.W.R. booking office and a small supplementary charge is made to permit the return journey to be made by train.
Road passengers who return by rail will be able to take advantage of the railway concern's luggage-in-advance arrangement's. Amongst the principal towns affected by the scheme are Bath, Chippenham, Exeter, Newbury, Reading, Paignton, Taunton, Torquay, Westbury and Marlborough.
It will be remembered that last April a similar scheme was announced in conjunction with London Coastal Coaches, Ltd. It is understood that further developments of a like nature are pending.
The second announcement is that practically the whole of the remaining road-passenger services operated by the G.W.R. Co. have, in the past week, been handed over to road undertakings associated with. the railway company. The services affected will be those in the Swindon, Banbury and Marlborough areas, also the Cheltenham-Oxford coach service, and these will in future be under the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., and the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd.
It may be recalled that the Cheltenham-Oxford service was introduced in October, 1928, just after the passing of the Railways Road Powers Act, and since that date it has throughout proved extremely popular.
As a result of the new move, the transfer of the .whole of the road passenger services, which in 1928 covered approximately 100 routes, has been arranged, with the exception of a service operating in the Weymouth area. The Helton-Lizard bus service is included, this being the first road passenger . service to have been regularly operated by an English railway company; it was introduced in 1903, before motorbuses commenced to run ou the Landon streets.