E ANOTHER BUS INQUIRY AT NEWCASTLE.
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E
! The Corporation's Application for Certain New Powers Opposed by e
! Strong Interests.
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NEWCASTLE, which has been the scene of something like a dozen important Ministry of Transport inquiries, was the centre of yet another of these investigations last week, when Mr. It. E. Tolerton, D.S.O., M.C., opened an inquiry into the request of the Newcastle Corporation for running powers, in respect of its buses, over the new coast road between Newcastle and Tynemouth, which is to he opened by the Minister of Transport at the end of this month, as well as in respect of a short stretch of the Great North Road between the city boundary and Henry Street, Gosforth.
Mr. C. B. Fenwick put the case for the corporation and a strong list of opposing authorities Was notified.
These included the United Automobile Services, Ltd. (represented by Mr. Frank Kirby), the London and North Eastern Railway Co. (Mr. Rowland Harker), the Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Co., Ltd. (Mr. E. S. Herbert) and the Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Co. (Mr. W. S. Burton). They all opposed the .proposal of the municipality to run buses to the coast, and the Tyneside Tramways Co. also objected to the proposal so far as the Gosforth application was concerned.
At the outset, Mr. renwick detailed the steps taken bY the municipality to provide tram and has services in the district, 'and said although at first the corporation regarded the omnibus solely as a feeder to the trams, that policy was now obsolescent, and the present programme was one in which the motorbus was looked upon as an express form of transit, as opposed to the tram, 'which could not achieve the high average speeds of the bus.
So far aS the new coast road was concerned, Mr. Fenwick said that once this was opened motorbuses could not be kept from using it. It was made for motor traffic and would provide a straight and direct route between the city and the ,coast, .a stretch of 4 miles. The new road would tap a rapidly growing district, and the question which arose was whether the Newcastle Corporation should be permitted to take its share in the volume of traffic which undoubtedly would exist. The cost of the road was being divided amongst the authorities at Newcastle, Tynemouth, Wallsend and Loughenton, and, although only 287 yards of the road were within the Newcastle city boundaries, the Ministry had decreed that Newcastle should pay nearly one-half of the cost, no doubt because of the great benefit which the city would derive from the new highway. This would represent a cost of £44,530 to Newcastle, and the balance of the cost of the road was divided as follows :— Longbenton, 1.2 per cent. (or 11,195) ; Tynemouth, 34.1 per cent. (L13,971) ; and Wallsend, 20 per cent. (£19,924).
The Newcastle Corporation, continued Mr. Pen-nick, could operate buses in the Longhenton area without opposition, but Wallsend and Tynemouth had reserved the right to. be consulted and satisfied with regard to the proposed services before officially .permitting the authority to rim its buses•over the road. He believed, however, that they approved of the application in principle.
Evidence was next given by Mr. T. P. Easton, general manager of the corporation transport department, who said that for the year ended March 31st last, the gross receipts of the traffic department were £604,658, towards which the motorbuses contributed £82,553. He added that from April last to September 24th, the returns for the •buses again showed increases as compared with last year.
I•Mritre the course of a cross examination by Mr. Harker, Mr. Easton observed that the corporation's wish to run buses over the new coast road was based upon a belief that it was entitled to do so having regard to the fact that it had borne such a large share of the 4:1,.st of the highway. He did not think that, if it obtained the powers. it was seeking, it would take all the traffic from the railway company's branch line between Newcastle and the coastal town% but he certainly did think that it would take a substantial part of it. In reply to a question, he admitted that, in one or two eases, the corpora-. tion trams and buses did not run, in competition. He thought that the railways had the matter of meeting competition in their own hands.
Discussing arrangements between the . responsible authorities, Mr. Easton said that, although no agreement existed, there had been formerly an arrangement whereby Newcastle :should have 60 per cent., of the buses and Tynemouth 40 per cent, of the buses running over the road, assuming that Wallsend did not obtain powers. If, however, the Wallsend authorities did secure bus powers they were to divide the remainder. This referred to licences granted, and not actually to the operation of municipal buses, i.e., that Newcastle should have 60 per cent. of the available licences, either for privately owned vehicles or municipal services.
Proceeding, Mr._ Easton said that differences between the working costs of Newcastle and other municipal bus systems was accounted for by the fact that a number of youths was employed on the vehicles. Answering Mr. Herbert, he said that fares on the new road would be at the rate of Id. per passenger per mile. Be agreed that the buses might compete with the trams in the Tynemouth vicinity. The corporation expected to secure a good deal of the through traffic and a little of the local traffic. It was really out for the through traffic, provided by people who lived at the coast and worked in Newcastle, whilst it also expected to get a large amount of holiday traffic. He said, in further evidence, that the Tynemouth Cohad endeavoured to obtain sanction to run a service to Newcastle via Earsdon, but had failed to secure the necessary licences.
Questioned with reference to the loss of E39,000 on Newcastle's bus system, Mr. Easton said that that was spread over a number of years and before the purchase of the present up-to-date fleet. He admitted that there was a possibility of an increase of id. per bus-mile on working costs, which might transfer the profit to a loss, but said the authority was hopeful of securing further economies.
The first witness called at the opening of the hearing on the following day was the chairman of the corporation transport committee, Alderman Richard Mayne, who denied that Newcastle Corporation 'was endeavouring to obtain a monopoly of traffic over the coast road. Its first intention had been to run a tram service over the new road, and the bridges had been constructed to this end, but it was now thought preferable to-use buses. There was no agreement with Tynemouth and Wallsend as to the disposal of the traffic. He did not think there would be any competition with the Tyneside trams, as they served different areas, but they might draw a few passenters from the Tynemouth Traction Co., which ran both buses and trams.
During a lengthy period of crossexamination by Mr. Harker, the witness was asked whether, if the Ministry considered that the railway company met the requirements of the population adequately, it should not be left to carry on the work of transporting the people? Alderman Mayne's answer was that a service was adequate until something better was provided and that adequacy did not merely mean frequency. ( Mr. Harker suggested that one result of the continued abstraction of traffic from the railways by motorbuses might be to bring about a revision of rates charged to traders for goods transit, and Alderman Mayne said he had seen that for some time, but it was not his business to tell the railway company how to meet the difficulty.
Mr. Harker remarked that the Newcastle corporation had solved the question of protecting its trams by putting up its bus fares. Aldermqn Ivlayne said that if the corporation did not provide the buses other people would, and the reason it was applying for powers was that if it waited until something was done in the way of unified control it might he left in the lurch. He admitted that Newcastle were refused powers to run to Tynemouth in 1922, and put on a service afterwards, but said it was withdrawn when it heard that an injunction was being applied for, because the corporation was aware it had acted illegally. If the new application was refused it would be a serious thing, because the buses had helped the corporation to counterbalance a great deal of the loss on the trams. Protective fares, he remarked, were not always effective.
An interesting point arose when Mr. Fenwiek proposed to call a number of witnesses to prove the demand far a service. The Commissioner told him that unless the opposition proposed to submit that there was not a public demand he need, not adopt this course. Mr. Harker at once said that he was going to submit that the corporation had not
proved the necessity of better transpor facilities between Newcastle and Tyei mouth, and, alternatively, that it wt neither necessary, nor desirable that, further facilities were needed, the should he supplied by the corporatioi The witnesses were thereupon calle and their evidence completed the car for the corporation.
Mr. Robert .Walter Cramp, genert manager of the Tynemouth Electra Traction Co., Ltd., stating the oh* tions brought forward by that uncle] taking, said that omnibuses on the ner coast road would affect the company' tram receipts between West Albio Road and the west of Preston Road t the Long Sands.
The resident director of the group t which the Tynemouth undertaking be longs (Mrs Harry Alfred Stagg) we next called. He said it was not th companies' policy to wait till there wa a loud demand from residents for . motorbus service, but to provide on where there was a reasonable expecte tion of traffic developing. After an ap plication for licences for a service be tween Tynemouth and Newcastle vii Wallsend had been before the Neweastl. Corporation for a year, it was turne( down on the grounds of congestion am the 'adequacy of existing services. If hi: company was licensed to run over tin coast-road it would undertake to provieh a satisfactory and regular service.
Mr. Burton urged that it was ar anomalous position that his company should have to pay towards' the cost m the road over which the corporation proposed to run competitive services.
Mr. Harker said the burden lay upon the municipality to prove that the exist ing transport facilities were inadequate and to prove that it could provide improved services without risk to the rate.
payers. He considered that there were no better facilities outside London than those provided by the railway company, The policy of Parliament nowadays was to trust local authorities only with local traffic.
At the time of going to press the inquiry was further adjourned.