COLNE'S •PREFERENCE FOR BUSES,
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Some Information Concerning the Changes in Methods of Passenger Transport which have Taken Place in a Busy Lancashire Town.
MHE Borough of Coke is turning to motorbuses in place of tramcars for passenger transport, in spite of the fact that some of the trams run on special tracks away from the main highway. Two sections of tramway have been abandoned and in one case the track has already been taken up and the road restored. Coble is situated on the main road running from Yorkshire into the heart of industrial Lancashire, and is principally built on the highway passing from Laneshaw Bridge to Nelson and then on to Burnley, Blackburn, etc.,
this forming the main street of the busy manufacturing. town.
The tramcars formerly ran from Laneshaw Bridge through the town and linked up with the Nelson tramways system at the borough boundary, the two towns having inter-running arrangements over the greater portion of the main route. A line of tramways branched off from the main line to serve a portion of the borough and the outside township of Trawden, and it is this section, together with the portion beyond the tramways depot, which served Laneshaw Bridge, which has been abandoned.
The two abandoned sections are really Independent portions of the tramways system, and it would be impossible to abandon any further portion without cutting off the tramways connection with Nelson or leaving the tramways depot isolated. Consequently, the question has not conic up for consideration, especially as the track through the town and onwards towards Nelson is in geed condition.
It was the prohibitive cost of relaying the two tracks which have been aban
doned that brought about the adoption of motorbuses on these routes. The route between the depot and Laneshaw Bridge, which was 1.34 miles long, was abandoned in 1926, and a start was made in removing the tram tracks in October of that year. To provide an efficient passenger-transport service for the busy industrial village of Laneshaw Bridge and the fairly thickly. populated residential district between Colne, and that place a service of motorbuses was instituted when the trams were withdrawn from service, and by means of the .buses it was possible to relieve the street through the centre of the town— a hilly and congested thoroughfare—of some of the traffic. To do this, and at the same time to enable passengers from the Laneshaw Bridge end of the district to get to the other end of the town and the railway station, the bus service was instituted along the Valley Road, a well-made highway which taps a new housing estate and a district with a large number of working-class dwellings and miffs. The bus route rejoins the main road and the tram track near Colne railway station, and thus provides a cross-town service, and one which is additional to the tramways.
The Trawden tramways section was abandoned so recently as June of this year. This portion of track is 1.6 miles long and in that distance leaves the main road in two places and runs on specially made tracks, adopted, in the first instance, to avoid steep gradients. The special tramways track at this point has never been used for ordinary road traffic, and no steps have as yet been taken to remove the rails and use the track as a highway, the gradients on the ordinary highway presenting no difficulty to the motorbuses.
Trawden has a population of about 3,000 persons, and the section referred to also serves a part of the borough known as Cottontree, where a number
of important mills, etc., is situated. The Trawden buses start from Cumberland Street, a thoroughfare just off the centre of the town, and it is interesting to note that the vehicles have enabled a more frequent and cheaper service to be provided. Furthermore, the fares have been slightly reduced as corn ared with the tram fares, and an important saving has been effected in the adoption of one-man-controlled buses as against trams having a driver and a conductor.
The buses on the Trawden route provide a service at intervals ranging from 20 minutes to one as frequent as six minutes at busy times, whereas the trams provided services which ran at 15-minute intervals. With the full service of cars in operation on the Laneshaw Bridge and Trawden routes, in addition to the service through to Nelson, 16 cars were in use, but the abandonment of two routes has enabled a reduction of six cars to be made in the rolling stock of the department.
The fleet of motorbuses in use at Coble at the present time consists of 22 vehicles, these comprising two Leyland Lion 35-seaters, two Leyland 32-seaters, eight Leyland Lioness 26-seaters, two Guy de luxe 26-seaters, two Guy 20-seaters, three Guy 26-seaters (in addition to the de-luxe models), two Guy 32-seaters and one Vulcan 20-seater.
The municipality first commenced the operation of motorbuses in the early months of 1923 and opened the route to Earby, a busy manufacturing town 4imiles away. On this route a halfhourly service is provided on week-days, thig being accelerated to a 12-minute service on Saturdays and Sundays, and a 15-minute service on Wednesdays and Fridays. On this route the corporation
has Mossrs E. Laycock and Sons, of Cowling, as competitors for the whole of the journey—this firm run without a licence in the borough of Cotneend on the greater part of the route the Ribble buses giving a through service from Cane to Skipton.
Although the department is in competition with Messrs. Laycock on the Earby route it runs a joint service with that company and the Keighley Corporation on the 13-mile route to Keighley from Colne, this being a 40minute service, with a 20-minute service during the greater part'of Saturday and Sunday. The three concerns run buses in turns, and Provide aid-vice between the two towns which is of greet value to travellers, as the railway Service is not good. There is also a good deal of inter-village traffic on the route, and many passengers are carried into the two towns for shopping from points distant from the railway.