Operating Aspects of Passenger Transport
Page 19
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EXEMPTION FROM CAMOUFLAGE REGULATIONS
STEPS have been taken to prevent the vehicle-camouflage regulations from causing hardship to owners of buses and coaches which have been on hire to the military. The effect rf tr regulations has been that when such vehicles, bearing military camouflage, have been returned to the owner, it has not been possible to use them for ordinary purposes until the camouflage has been removed. Under waf-One conditions it may take as long as six weeks to get a repaint, and in the meantime there may be urgent uses to which the vehicle could be put. In view of cases of hardship v-inch have arisen, the Ministry of Tratsport has made arrangements with the War Office for temporary •certificates of exemption from the camouflage regulations to be issued in respect of vehicl-3 returned from military hire, so that the ownerscan use them for ordinary purposes pending a repaint.
LYTHAM-ST. ANNES HAS A BETTER YEAR
I N the past municipal year LythamSt. Armes transport undertaking showed a net loss of *640, a big reduction from the previous year's loss of £5,582. Income was. £51,202, of which £38,763 came from traffic revenue. A Sum of £11,099 was received for the inter-co-Operation, of bus services with Blackpool. Expenditure totalled *37,607, leaving a gross profit of £15,596. Sinking fund and interest charges absorbed .£16,236.
CHESTERFIELD TAKES THE LONG VIEW 'THE transport manager has reported I to Chesterfield Transport Committee on the advisability of placing provisional orders for 20 new bus chassis with a view to the corporation being • placed on the priority list of the manufacturers. The committee has now authorized the placing of provisional orders for 15 Leyland chassis and five A.E.C. chassis.
The transport manager also reported that in connection with an order placed in November, 1939, for 10 double-deck and five single-deck buses, the Ministry of Supply has now agreed to the release of seven chassis.
RELIEF BUSES GIVE HELPING HAND AT SHEFFIELD
APPROXIMATELY 50 buses and coaches, mobilized under the Yorkshire voluntary grouping scheme for independent operators, afforded valuable passenger transport relief to Sheffield following recent enemy air attacks 'on the city. On the mornings after the first raid, a number of group leaders in various districts reported to the Transport CommissiOner for the North-eastern Region, Major F. S. Eastwood, in accordance with emergency arrangements previously made, with the result that vehicles were speedily mobilized and sent to the stricken area.
First of all the relief fleet was
employed in taking to the rest centres people who were homeless as a result of the bombing, and afterwards in transporting these families to the billets . which had been arranged for them. Then came another vital task—assisting in the maintenance of public transport services in the city. Day after day the relief fleet has been employed, with Sheffield Corporation's own fleet of buses, in grappling with the transport emergency arising from the fact that the city's tramway system suffered through the bombing. "
PEAK-HOUR TRAVEL: " CROSVILLE "ISSUES WARNINGS
I N common with other bus organizations, Crosville Motor Services, Ltd., of Chester, has issued a statement declaring that, it has reluctantly been compelled to issue warnings agair-t overcrowditg at peak hours. Seven appeals will be made to travellifig public, terminating in a final warning which, threatens to exclude all passengers other than war-production workers during certain hours of the day, if a reasonable response be not made to the earlier requests. Such a step would not have to be taken but for the unnecessary (-ingestion arising on services in industrial areas, mainly between the hours of 7 and 9 a.m., and 4.30 and 7 p.m. This is chiefly due to the crowding out of workers by peoPle who could, without the slightest " inconvenience, make their journeys earlier in the day, or at more suitable times.
GLASGOW'S GAS BUS EXPERIMENTS GLASGOW Transport Department is 1...lat present experimenting with a gasdriven bus on the regular service between Drumchapel and Carntyne. A similar experiment was tried by the department in the autumn of 1938, a single-decker loaned by the Highland Transport Co., Inverness, being used. The corporation bus carries, in a hopper, 6 cwt. of anthracite coal, which is sufficient for a day's journey, and uses it at the rate of 3 lb. per mile. The transport department is also converting two more buses for gas experiments. One of them will use gas at low pressure, and the other will run on high-pressure gas.
WILL WAR SOUND DEATH-KNELL OF COVENTRY'S TRAMS?
PROBLEMS arising out of the recent big air raid on Coventry were discussed a few days ago by the city council, when a recommendation by the transport committee that the remaining tramway services in the city be discontinued for the duration of the war was approved. It was stated that there were sufficient buses. available to deal with the traffic requirements of the city, provided that industrial working hours be staggered. Councillor G. E. Roberts said it was unlikely that tramway services wouldever be restored at
Coventry.
SUNDERLAND DISPLACES 2d. UNIVERSAL FARE
THE Ministry of Transport has approved Sunderland Corporation's plan to replace the 2d, universal fare with a 10. any-distance ticket o buses and trams, and the change came into operation on January 1. Mr._ C. A. Hopkins, transport manager, commenting on the change, said that the 2d. ticket was open to abuse gond the new charge would help tO improve matters under the conditions now
obtaining.
WORKMEN'S-TICKETS CONCESSIONS VETOED
•OLDHAM Passenger Transport Cornmittee has decided to appeal to the Ministry of Transport against the refusal of the Regional Transport Commissioner to approve the issue of workmen's tickets to building-trade operatives up to 8.30 a.m., as against 8 a.m. for the general body of workpeople. The Commissioner has pointed out that he could not see any ground for discrimination between workers, r ; there were many other workpeople who could travel between 8 and 8.30 a.m.
Taking into consideration the anomalies that would be created on t' jointly operated services running into Oldham and the fact that if this application be granted there would be similar requests from other bodies of workpeople, the Commissioner felt. that-he could not do other than withhold his approval of the proposed scheme,