Operating Aspects of Passenger Transport •
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BUS-REVENUE SETBACK AT GLASGOW
REVENUE of the Glasgow municipaltransport services during the year ended May 31 last fell short of that of the previous year by almost £170,000. This decline was produced chiefly in the bus section, owing to the reduced mileage resulting from petrol rationing. The revenue from buses amounted to £861,722, as compared with £1,011,055 in the previous year. The number of passengers carried showed a decrease of 19,346,719, the figures being 110,230,670, against 129,577,396.
The total number of passengers carried on the transport system was 596,159,523, as compared with 651,819,919, and the total revenue was £3,351,309, contrasted with £3,520,253.
For the 14 weeks piior to the end of the financial year on May 31, the department has, since the introduction of higher fares, been drawing in approximately £5,000 per week more than a year ago.
ROTHERHAM HAD MORE PASSENGERS LAST YEAR I N his report on Rotherham Corpora tion Transport Department, Mr. T. P. Sykes, the general manager, said that, for the year ended March 21. although the mileage was reduced on account of fuel restrictions, etc., _the number of passengers carried was greater. than in the previous year. This was due to two reasons—greater activity in local works and the reduction in the number of persons wholly or temporarily unemployed.
Revenue increased from £224,093 to £233,328, but there were heavy i,ucreases in working costs. The passengers carried numbered almost 36,000,000. On the trolleybuses. there was a surplus of . £18,438, against £20,841 in the previous year. The surplus on the buses decreased slightly from £26,214 to £26,043, and bus receipts fell from £106,072 to £104,985.
WOLVERHAMPTON BUS PROFIT I T is reported by the transport committee of Wolverhampton Corporation that there was a net profit of £12,220 on the motorbus and trolleybus services for the past municipal year.
BUS RESULTS AT NORTHAMPTON
DURING the year ended March 31 last, the total income of the passenger transport department of
Northampton Corporation was £121,563, which is roughly £5,000 more than in the previous year. mainly owing to the presence of evacuees. By reason of the fact that services were restricted after the start of the war, working expenses, which totalled £91,297, were lower by about £5,000. The actual balance carried to the netrevenue account was £30,265.
During the year 23,121,897 passengers were carried and the buses ran 1,743,500 miles.
HIGHER FARES PROPOSAL REFERRED BACK
pLANS for increasing fares on the municipal buses have again been referred back to the transport committee by South Shields Town Council. The committee recommended that fares be increased on most routes, but no change was proposed in children's fames. Councillor W. R. 13lyton, moving the reference back, said that the committee should prepare a report on the basis of Id. fare stages. There was a feeling that lid, was too much for a short journey.
Councillor Noble, chairman of the transport committee, said that, owing to higher costs, fares must be increased to prevent the undertaking becoming a charge on the rates.
ISSUE OF WORKMEN'S SUNDAY TICKETS
THE Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Montague, stated last week that with regard to road services, all Regional Transport Commissioners had been asked to ensure that arrangements for the issue of workmen's tickets on Sundays, on provincial road services, were as wide in scope as those made by the L.P.T.B. and the railways.
As a war-time emergency, Sunday workmen's tickets would be issued by these, at any time, for journeys between places of residence and employment, to all applicants producing a works pass, shift certificate or other means for identification associated with the place at which the work was to be performed.
EDINBURGH'S ALTERNATIVE FARES -PLAN
IDY 26 votes to 8, Edinburgh Cor poration has approved a new scheme for increases in bus and tram fares. When the corporation applied for consent to increase bus fares from Id. to lid., the Regional Transport Commissioner expressed the vie* that. whilst some increases in fares -were necessary, it would he inequitable to apply the increases in the manner proposed. The Minister of Transport concurred. Accordingly, he would not sanction the proposed increases in bus fares, Mr. Robert 1VI'Leod, transport manager, said he had been in touch with the Regional Commissioner, and they had now evolved a basis of charges which would be acceptable to the Com missioner. It consisted, briefly, of dividing each separate route into stages of approximately .45 of a mile, and giving two stages for id., three stages for lid., four stages on buses and five on trams for 2d., and seven stages for 21d,
ABERDEEN'S REVENUE SUFFERS LITTLE
REPORT of the transport department of Aberdeen Corporation for the past municipal year reveals that, eotwit hstand in g war-time conditions, the revenue was only about £1,000 less than in the previous financial year. Receipts amounted to £330,090, compared with £337,329 in the preceding year. The number of passengers carried was greater than last year-73,032,511 against 70,061,011. The extra Leap Year day meant an additional income of about £900,
SOUTH SHIELDS NEEDS MORE TIME
IT is stated that South Shields Town
Council has decided to apply to the Ministry of Transport for an extension of the time in which it may commence the operation of trolleybuses along routes authorized by the South Shields Corporation Act, 1935, so far as powers which have not yet been exercised are concerned.
BUS AS MOBILE THEATRE FOR THE TROOPS
D ECENTLY, Mr. James Bullock, of J. Bullock and Sons (1928), Ltd., the well-known Wakefield concern of ous proprietors, presented a mobile theatre made from a converted singledeck bus to the Wakefield Troops
Entertainment Committee. In addi
tion to a stage, a piano and seats, there is a canteen on the vehicle, Mr. Bullock's gift will be used for the prevision of entertainment for Service men at searchlight stations and antiaircraft batteries in outlying districts.
A few months ago Mr. Bullock presented an A.R.P, ambulance, made from a converted bus, to the Wakefield Corpora (doe .
BIRKENHEAD BUSES AID RATES
I N the year ended March 31, 1940, the was a surplus of £37,380 on the motorbus account of Birkenhead Cor poration. Of this sum £27,000 has been contributed in aid of the rates and £3,895 in respect of the reinstatement of roads. The unallocated balance of £6,485 is being carried forward.
CHESTERFIELD HAS ANOTHER GOOD YEAR I N the year ended March 31, 1940, the buses of Chesterfield Corporation were operated at a gross profit of £45,164, total income having amounted to £158.254 and working expenses to £113,090. In the previous year the gross profit was £42,395. In the year the buses covered an aggregate mileage of 2,623,883 and carried 20,452,851 passengers. Although the former figure was considerably below that of the previous year, the latter figure was over 500,000 higher.
GLASGOW BUS SEASONS UNCHANGED
WEEKLY tickets on Glasgow CorVV poration buses are to remain at 3s. and will be valid for unlimited journeys on seven days of the week. The Regional Traffic Commissioner has revoked his decision to increase the price to 3s. 6d. and to restrict travel to 24 journeys on six days of the week.
In a letter to the transport committee Mr. Henderson, the Commissioner, states that since his earlier decision was given, the seven-day week for munition workers has been instituted, and it is desirable that these workers should be able to travel as cheaply as possible.
The letter suggests that the Ministry of Transport is considering fares generally with a view to ensuring for war workers the fullest' facilities for travelling to and from their jobs.
NOTTINGHAM GAS-BUS EXPERIMENT
AT Nottingham, the municipal passengersenger transport committee has decided to experiment with a gas
producer trailer behind a bus. One vehicle is being converted at the outset and it will be given a trial over a period before a decision is made concerning the wider adoption of producer gas for bus propulsion.