Conducted by EDMUND DANGERFIELD. Editor: EDWARD SHRAPNELL SMITH. The Coronation Parade.
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Certain particulars will be found, elsewhere in this issue, concerning the arrangements for the Coronation Motor Parade on Whit-Monday, the 5th prox. It will be realized that this undertaking is one of considerable magnitude, and that the Commercial Motor Users Association is carrying out, in the interests of owners, a most-valuable work. Many instances have been brought under our notice in which drivers have been taking the keenest interest in the condition of their vehicles for the past six or seven months, and have been voluntarily putting in extra time, on Saturday afternoons and on other holidays, in order lo see that their machines will be paraded with every part in thoroughly-good order, both externally and internally. Now that the Dominion and Overseas deputations to the Imperial Conference and the Coronation are arriving in London, the Association finds itself, as was foreseen when the programme. was considered at the end of December last, in a.position to bring numerous examples of vans, lorries, etc., taken from service, immediately under the personal notice of these influential visitors, not a few of whom will attend the official luncheon and the parade ten days hence. The Parade Committee and the Judges Committee are now in the middle of arduous sittings, in respect of the viva-voce examination of drivers, the scrutiny of log-books, the consideration of the qualities of various engineers-in-charge, and the settling of numerous points of detail which the huge increase of entries has imposed upon them. -We believe they will find their reward in a general expression of appreciation for their labours by all who know how great is the work involved.
Toppling Electric Traction : the L.C.C. on Its Defence.
Pride. ever preceded a fall, and the latest instance is provided by the peculiar situation in which the Highways Committee of the London County Council finds itself at the present moment. Less than two years ago, this committee, and the officers responsible to it, professed a real contempt for motorbus competition, one gentleman even going so far as to predict that motorbuses would be exhibited " as curios in museums" before 20 years had elapsed. 111-timed prophecies of this class now furnish subjects for reminders which cannot. be exactly pleasant to L.C.C. tramway advocates, and the present occasion for our reverting to matters which affect electric tracti3n in London is due to the submission of the L.C.C. tramway estimates for the current financial year. We pass over the fact that the total capital outlay on the system is placed at 14 pillions sterling, exclusive of certain possible extensions for which powers are T1OW. being sought. We also pass over the facts that receipts per car:mile arc showing ominous. indications of progressive decrease, and that the yield per mile of track, in respect of the more-recently-opened sections, is far inferior to the yield from the average of the older sections. This reduction in yield may, of course, for all we know, have been foreseen by the leaders of the electric-traction movement : it is undoubtedly a disconcerting factor. In spite of assurances to the contrary, it is clear that the average working expenditure per car-mile, for the L.C.C. tramcars, inclusive of interest on capital, sinking fund and reasonable provision for renewals reserve, is not below 11d. Three or four years ago, the corresponding inclusive expenditure for a motorbus was anything between 12d. and 15d., and in those circumstances, happily transitory, supporters of electric traction waxed eloquent and dogmatic. To-day, as we have had occasion to point out quite recently, the motorbus figure has been reduced to an assured 8d., with early prospects ahead of its falling to 7d. Tires, for example, which only some two years ago were costing fully leid. per mile, now frequently come out at only Id., whilst mechanical maintenance charges are known to have fallen, compared with the period January-June, 1907, by something like 3d. per mile. We have no space to enter further into details of the minor economies which have brought about the improved situation of 1911 on the expenditure side. On the revenue side, chiefly owing to the noteworthy renewal of public confidence in motorbuses as a means of conveyance, income is sufficient to show a normal margin, unprecedented frequency of service notwithstanding, of not less than 2c1, per mile, after all outgo has been met, for allocation to depreciation, reserve and dividend. In the foregoing circumstances, the plaintive explanations and pleas of the Highways Committee of the L.C.C. need scarcely occasion surprise. They are, in fact, almost overdue. The misleading claim is again put forward that the omnibus services "occupy an exceptionally favourable position, owing to the fact. that the companies are not liable, as the Council is, to pay rates for the occupation of the roads over which their omnibuses run, and, further, although the companies use the roads to a very great extent, they make no special contribution to the upkeep thereof." This is true in a sense, yet deceptive. We are astounded that an unqualified statement of this kind should be authorized for circulation by a body of Public men : the Highways Committee and the L.C.C. cannot possibly be unaware of the fact that the Road Board receives a yield in the neighbourhood of £50.000 per annum in respect of the motor spirit which is consumed by London motorbuses, and that this sum, at least, is available for application to Metro nolitan ro'd-imnrovement and strengthening— if the Borough Councils can substantiate their cases.
The public at large will not be under any misappre hension, we trust. They cannot be kept in that state for long, we know. The text which accompanies the tramway estimates, which were down for discussion at last Tuesday's meeting of the L.C.C., proceeds to state : " With electric traction, the cars run entirely on the rails, and are responsible for no part of the wear of the paving, nor do they place any cleansing work on the road authorities. On the contrary, the local authorities are relieved of the cost of maintaining a considerable part of the roadway, and a certain amount for street cleansing." We would point out that the exclusive use of the rails by the electric tramcars is one reason for their being rated by the Borough Councils, and that the second reason is found in the fact that the tramcars concentrate the ordinary wheel traffic upon the portions of the highway which do not lie between the rails, with the result—one of several which cause grave inconvenience and loss—that the local ratepayers have to bear the extra burden of this concentration, whereas the tramway authority is largely relieved of the supposed burden about which repeated, though idle, protests are made on its behalf. The report, in condescending phraseology, after quoting certain expenditure, amounting to £118,000 a year, which is stated to be the cost to the Council of maintaining the roadway between the metals, many of which repairs we may incidentally remark are a source of enormous and continued obstruction to general traffic, and many of which are probably due to features connected with the conduit system rather than to wear and tear of the granite setts, reads thus : " This expenditure seems to us clearly to show that a great use is made by general traffic of the portion of the road over which the tramcars run." The Highways Committee is evidently still obsessed by the view that the tramcars should have a clear run at all times over the tracks, and considers it necessary to record, in a tone of injured protest, the fact that other vehicles are somehow allowed to use, and do use, that considerable portion of the King's highway over which the tramcars are not only permitted to share the common right of way, but also exclusively to utilize the advantage of running upon a metal track, Never before has the L.C.C_ Highways Committee found it necessary to put forward a detailed series of statements to account for its dwindling revenues and the imminence of serious financial embarrassments. We regard this apologetic defence as outward evidence of grave internal fears that the 14 millions sterling will shortly prove to be locked up in an undertaking which cannot hold its own with the dirigible motorbus for more than another two or three years. The next six months will prove this.