Coaching
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-ow and In the Future TO hundreds of thousands of people of strictly limited means the motor coach is proving an inestimable boon by affording them rapid, comfortable and interesting travel to holiday resorts, places of special interest and the homes of friends and relatives, from which the excessively high cost of railway transport would otherwise debar them. For the average man in the street with a family, who cannot afford a car, and even if he had one would probably find himself so short of petrol as to restrict the use of it to local running, any reasonably long trips by rail for the several people concerned are also prohibitively costly. Consequently, only the coach, or for less-lengthy journeys the bus, is practicable.
It is people in these classes whom a Socialist Government should wish to help, if only for the reason that they probably represent the majority of the electorate which put it into power. We are much afraid, however, that if the nationalization of public passenger transport takes place, the days of cheap coaching will be strictly limited, for in that case there will undoubtedly be a move to raise coach fares to some level not quite so competitive with those normally charged for transport by rail. . There may, of course, be further concessions in the way of cheap day returns, on the railways, but they cannot hold out anything like the attraction of the coach. The herding together of large numbers of people in excursion trains is not a prospect to be viewed with pleasure or equanimity, and there can be none of those agreeable stops for refreshment on the way.
Views on a Affecting Roa fort for t
Efficiency Not Officialdom There is little doubt that the public in general will feel greatly aggrieved if the heavy hand of officialdom descends upon its favourite means for transport combined with pleasure. The coaching fraternity is universally popular. Courtesy and service are the watchwords. Comfortable accommodation is ensured immediately a booking has been accepted, and there is no fighting to get into already crowded compartments. In this respect a visit to any of our coaching stations, even at the ;times of highest pressure, is a revelation of quiet effidiericy and orderliness. The vehicles enter and leave with almost clockwork precision, and arrival times at destinations are normally to schedule, whereas many trains are far from being punctual.
In fact, taken as a whole, coaching has seized the imagination of the travelling public and of foreign visitors to an extent which can be realized only when the travel figures for this type of transport are studied.
Efforts are being made to exploit the natural advantages of the United Kingdom as a tourist centre for visitors from overseas. It has been estirnated that, with scientific planning and a businesslike approach to the subject, the touring industry could be developed to yield £100,000,000 a year, and become one of the Nation's principal sources of foreign currency.
Encourage Tourist Traffic As Mr. James Amos, director and general manager of the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., pointed out this week to delegates to the Public Transport Association's Conference at Harrogate, full recognition and financial support from the Government are essential to. the development of tourism in this country. In this matter, the Government has a special responsibility to coach opera tors, who carry so much of the traffic. .
Official encouragement is necessary, not only at the highest levels of planning, but also in matters of detailed administration. For instance, a change in the attitude of the Ministry of Transport towards vehicles 8 ft. wide is vitally necessary. The procedure prescribed by the Ministry for the authorization of these machines is so cumbrous that it can be undertaken only by the largest stage-carriage operators. The effect is for the extra comfort that the 8-ft.-wide vehicle affords to be given to the short-stage passenger, instead of to the tourist, who is at least equally entitled to it.
This point was brought home by Mr. W. M. Dravers, general manager of Sheffield United Tours, Ltd., at the Harrogate Conference. His suggestions for ameliorating the difficulties are described in this issue. He also criticized the actions of certain Licensing Authorities in disregarding the case law.established by pre-wg appeal decisions, by favouring local operators la preference to those who run extended tours.
Unless coach operators are assisted in providing vehicles affording the highest standard of passenger comfort, efforts on a national scale to attract visitors to this country will not be fully rewarded. A great deal of money spent in elaborate propaganda will be partly wasted, and enlightened coach operators and hotel proprietors who have set out specifically to cater for the tourist trade will be seriously embarrassed. There is also need for a better relationship between coach and hotel proprietors. Many complaints are being made about the standard of accommodation and quality of service offered to coach touring parties, also about charges. The establishment of hotel chains by large operators would be an expensive solution of the problem of ensuring a reliable standard of accommodation for their customers, but there is already a trend in that direction.