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1930 A YEAR of PROGRESS
Page 104
Page 105
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in Passenger Vehicles
DESPITE the distractions of a Road Traffic Act, revolutionary in its principal objects, and of a Royal Commission considering its verdict on proposals for " co-ordination " the
road -passenger industry has, during the past year, considerable progress to report. We use the word " progress " advisedly, with a greater significance than is conveyed by the idea of statistics.
The "numerical statement of facts "—in which terms the text-books define statistics—is often subjected to the criticism that a great deal of labour is devoted to the compilation of figures which, although revealing points of interest, have no practical application. It would be more to the point, perhaps, to say that many of us lack the happy knack of applying statistics to practical ends. It can be done, but the trouble with such statistics is that they are so voluminous.
Our purpose, however, is, briefly, to record the progress of the road passenger industry, and to some extent the task' may be performed statistically in the following table:— , It is obvious, at first sight, that the industry is still forging ahead. Summed up, it amounts to this: there are at least 3,500 more buses and coaches on the roads this year than there were last year ; the organized section of the industry has absorbed nearly 3,000 of them, and the capital invested in these concerns has increased by some f2,500,000. It is a good record in a year of unprecedented industrial depression.
There are certain facts revealed by the schedules from which these aggregate figures are compiled, which, later, it may be interesting to explain, but for the moment we want to consider "progress" from other aspects.
Features of the Past Year.
From several points of view the past year must be regarded as one of the most significant in the industry's comparatively brief history. It has been a year of re-organization andre-adjustment; the industry has been engaged upon the task of eliminating the "wasteful competition" and the "uneconomic exploitation of the roads" of which it has been so often accused.
In congequence, at least in part, the development of normal bus (stage-carriage) services, whilst not stationary, exhibits a "slowing down." The plea that roads in and near urban centres of population are physically incapable of sustaining a greater volume of D34 traffic must, however, be regarded as a contributory cause, as well as the general economic depression in the country.
On the other hand, the year has witnessed, in the promotion of many new express-coach services, a phase of development which (if the law permits) must ultimately and inevitably exercise a powerful influence on conditions of road passenger transport generally. It has been calculated that, apart from purely urban routes, there are now more than 4,000 coach and bus services in operation throughout the country. The motorbus services carry over 5,000 million passengers a year ; we have not sufficient data concerning expresscoach services upon which to base an estimate.
By all these figures, however, we come to the fact that the passenger road motor is revolutionizing the travelling habits of the public, conferring conveniences of transit unobtainable by any other form of transport.
But in the fact lies a challenge to the established order of things. It has created traffic problems ; it has involved older forms of transport in loss, and prompted pleas for protection, "restriction of competition" and "co-ordination."
Now, whatever blessings co-ordination may confer (and admittedly there are some), it is easy to see that, judged by the interests of general economic welfare, it can be carried to excess if it involves the setting up of artificial barriers to the natural development and growth of any particular traffic.
Co-ordination and Unification of Control.
The past year, as we have indicated, has been conspicuous by the co-ordination and the unification of control which have been effected. The conduct of passenger road transport tends more and more to fall into the hands of the larger organizations.
It will be seen from the table above that data are available concerning 1,050 operating concerns, 100 of which are local authorities. The companies (950) are operating approximately 28,400 buses and coaches, and the municipalities nearly 5,000 vehicles.
The striking fact about the companies' figures is that no fewer than 70 per cent. of the vehicles operated by them are in the hands of only 56 concerns. Hardly less striking is the further fact that these 56 concerns run over 45 per cent, of the total estimated number of buses and coaches in operation throughout the country.
The proportion will be even greater in the near future, as several fairly important mergers are shortly to be effected. It is worth while to explain, perhaps, that each of the 56 separate companies referred to operates a fleet of 100 or more vehicles. In most of these companies the main-line railways have large interests, and are exercising, by agreement, their powers to effect co-ordinated working and the elimination of unnecessary competition.
The table which is published on the next page, classifying according to size the fleets of the 950 companies of which data are available, is interesting and in many ways instructive. It is worth mentioning in passing that the three largest concerns are the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd. (4,623), United Automobile that our records contain particulars of all concerns of any considerable size; it is the small operators who cannot be gathered in and whose data cannot be collated. But after we have eliminated from the above table the 56 companies operating approximately 19,900 vehicles there remains a body of 894 companies to which the remaining 8,500 vehicles are allocated— averaging fewer than 10 vehicles per company.
When we take into account the vehicles owned by unlisted proprietors it becomes evident that the number of small firms and individuals operating publicservice vehicles is, comparatively speaking, enormous. It is probably a conservative estimate to place the number of such at over 5,000, owning collectively about 40 per cent. of the total number of and coaches licensed.
A fair proportion of these small proprietors operates
regular bus and express-coach services, but the majority Tuns coaches that cater mainly for pleasure traffic. The overwhelming bulk of regular road passenger traffic is handled by the large organizations.
Municipal undertakings have, during the year, but a modest growth to record. Most of them have increased their fleets slightly—Glasgow by over 100; Birmingham by 80 Odd_ But a few have reduced them. The • net result is an overall increase of 500 vehicles amongst the 100 municipalities now running motor public-service vehicles.
There are only seven local authorities with bus fleets of over 100. 'Birmingham heads the list with 380 machines and Glasgow comes next with 245. Manchester is also over the 200 mark, and next in order come Liverpool, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Birkenhead. It is hardly ever safe to prophesy, but it is not unreasonable, now that the Road Traffic Act is on the Statute Book, to anticipate within a comparatively short space of time a considerable extension of municipal motorbus operation.
In a general review of the position and progress of the industry an analysis of statistics relating to any particular area is hardly called for, but in view of the special conditions affecting London a few figures may not be out of place. As we all know, the London Traffic Act has effected little taore than the creation of a monopoly—fortunately one that works well and, on the whole, to the advantage of the public. The number of bus-operating concerns in -the Metropolitan Police district has now been reduced to 62, and the number of buses scheduled for operation on July 1st last was 4,895. The L.G.O.C. and five other concerns operating in association, account for 4,664. The remaining 231 louses are in the hands of 56 proprietors, and of these the largest is the City Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., with 33 buses scheduled.
These figures, of course, take no account of expresscoach services, in which there has been a great increase during the year.
There is really much of interest which could be said concerning London's passenger transport—as, for instance, on the Government's scheme of unification and control, and the proposed ban on coaches—but our limit of space has been reached, and in any case these matters are, perhaps, beyond the scope of a statistical survey.