Motorbus
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Armstrong's Penrith Coach and Motor Co., Ltd., is a new registration with its registered office at the George Hotel, Penrith.
Jordan and Sons, Ltd., of 116, Chancery Lane, W.C., has registered, as a new concern, the Mid-Derbyshire Motor Bus Co., ;Ad.
£100 has been subscribed, by an anonymous donor, to a relief fund which is being raised at Willesden on behalf of a number of ex-drivers of London horse-drawn buses.
Commercial Car Hirers, Ltd.., continues to extend its services in Derbyshire. Last Monday, a new motorbus line was inaugurated between Alfreton and Chesterfield.
Great Eastern Dividend.
It is announced that the directors of the Great Eastern London Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., have decided to declare an interim dividend at the rate of five per cent, per annum for the half-year ended 31st December, 1909. We learn unofficially that the company has again done very well in spite of the adverse weather conditions during the past six months.
Progress at Ilfracombe.
Ilfracombe is shortly to have furth r facilities in the matter of public motor-vehicle services. Mr. Tom Copp, of the Ilfracombe Motor Service ant' Supply Co., Ltd., is acquiring some new Dennis machines, which will be run as chars-k-bancs between Ilfracombe and Combs Martin regularly. In the summer season, trips will he run to Clovelly and other beauty spots in North Devon.
2,400 Summonses for Spitting.
We recently recorded the satisfactory action which the Glasgow tramway authorities have, for some time past, been taking with regard to the objectionable habit of spitting in tram
cars. We now learn that the firm stand which has been made in this important matter has necessitated the issue of no fewer than 2,400 summonses since the beginning of October last. TT1 many cases, the accused persons failed to respond to the summonses; the police then requested the defaulters to call at the police-station, and warnings were issued that they would be apprehended if this suggestion were disregarded. It should be of interest to all those who are in control of public-service vehicles to learn that this official activity has very considerably abated the nuisance.
The nine second-hand motorbuses, winch were purchased at the beginning of the year by a special committee of the Eastbourne Town Council, have been driven from London to Eastbourne by road, in exceptionallygood time. A supply of spare parts is to be purehased at once for the machines.
Barton's Motors Help the People.
Reminiscent of the appeals of tramway-owning corporations to " support the tramcars," is the request on a printed timetable, which we reproduce. to the inhabitants of certain Nottinghamshire villages to " kindly help the people's motor." Surely, as the public-motor service, maintained by Messrs. Andrew Barton Bros., of Bee sto», appears to meet a definite requirement in this district, there should be little need to ask for local charity. Rather would it seem to be Messrs. Barton's motors which are kindly helping the people. Be that as it may, we are interested to hear that the fleet, which consists of a Milnes-Daimler, a Durham-Churchill and a Scott-Stirling, has been running for five months and has, during that period, not missed a journey. This is a capital tribute to the care with which the service is maintained. In rural services of this nature, it is vital to keep faith with the public in the matter of time-keeping. Barton's make a big feature of special theatre trips into Nottingham from the serrounding A new company, the Stranraer anti Drummore Motor Bus Co., Ltd., has been formed to run the motorbus service in that district. We have recorded the vicissitudes of this service in the past, but there are undoubted prospects of success ahead of the new company, which has been registered in Edinburgh.
The Law About Tickets.
A certain tramcar passenger was summoned, recently, at the instance of the London County Council, for changing cars, while only possessing ono ticket, in order to expedite his journey. Mr. Clner, the magistrate, at Old Street Police Court, decided that " the transfer of a passenger from one car to another " is " a matter of indulgence." A ticket, which is not a " through " ticket, is therefore not available on any car other than that upon which it was issued. This decision, however, would not hold in the case of a passenger who had been instructed to transfer to another car by a conductor. The defendant claimed that the issue of a ticket was in the nature of a contract by the Council to carry a passenger to a certain destination in a reasonable time. A nominal fine of 6d., with 23s. costs, was imposed.
C.O. Inspector's Qualifications.
At a recent inquest, which was held by Dr. Guthrie, the deputy coroner for North-east London, in respect of a fatal motorbus accident in Dalston Lane, an inspector from the Public Carriage Office of Scotland Yard was closely questioned as to his qualifications to undertake expert examinations of motor-vehicle mechanism. The deputy coroner elicited the information that the inspector was not an engineer, and that he bad never served his time in a workshop. An admission of some. moment was the fact, that this official had never driven a motor-vehicle. The coroner concluded his summing-up with the following expression of opinion : " I should have thought that in the case of a mechanical accident such as this it would have been more up-to-date and more in accord with modern ideas for an engineer to have heen sent." (Hear, hear.) He added that personally the inspector was donbtless an excellent fellow, but an ordinary public vehicle and a motorbus were very different, and he was surprised that a nonmechanical man should be sent down to inspect such a complicated piece of machinery as a motorbus. In aid of the discharged horse-omnibus drivers of -the S.W. district of London, of whom a number of the older men are in distress, a relief fund has been started by Mrs. J. C. Walcott, 1, Grove Court, Drayton Gardens, S.W. To help swell this charity, a first-class evening concert, at which many well-known artists will appear, is to be held on Wednesday, 18th February, at the Byfeld Hall, Barnes. Tickets, at is., 2s., and 3s., may he obtained front Mist: Skoulding, 11, Oaklands Road, East Sheen.
Tube Traffic Results.
At the twenty-ninth half-yearly general meeting of the Central London Railway, held last Thursday, at the Holborn Restaurant, the Chairman, Sir Henry Oakley, gave some interesting statistics with regard to the passengers carried during the last six months of last year. The Shepherd's Bush exhibition in 1909 accounted for only 800,000 passengers as compared with five million who journeyed to the " Franco-British " in 1908. Compared with the previous year, 1.909 showed a gross decrease of 2,602,000 passengers and of £46,860 in receipts. At the present time, it is claimed that two and-a-half times as many penny pas sengers are being carried as were pre
viously conveyed at twopence. 200,000 fewer workmen have been conveyed during the six months ; this is attributed to lack of general employment. public less trouble when travelling by the Central London tube in future. Efforts are to be made to give the