RAILWAY BUSES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 75, 21 December 1928, Page 8

RAILWAY BUSES

PURCHASE OF THIRTEEN MORE OUTLAY OF £26,000 The purchase of thirteen new buses for use on the Wellington-Petone-Hutt main road, representing an approximate outlay of £26,000, is the immediate programme of the Railway Bus Department. Three of the buses have been purchased, and will be placed in use for Christmas traffic, while the remaining ten are to be put on the road in January. It was in November of last year that the Department made its first purchase of six buses from the owners, aud upon another 38 being bought in February of this year, the total was brought up to 51. Since then these buses have been running under the control of the Department in conjunction with the usual suburban trains. Buses have been used as “feeders” to the trains, in addition to those engaged on the straight run through. The people generally are appreciating the extra facilities provided, said the manager of the Railway Bus Department (Mr. J. Carnelian) yesterday the advantage of the buses in wet weather and their accessibility being points in their favour. In addition to the growing patronage of the buses is the increasing population in the Hutt district, while further traffic will be forthcoming when the new railway workshops are opened on January 7, creating a new Industrial area for which the Department intends to cater. Already the Department has purchased three buses, of different makes, and these will be put into commission almost Immediately. Tenders are being called for ten more, and by about the middle of January these also will be in use. It is expected that the undertaking will cost in the vicinity of £26,000.

The Department,- while having regard to present requirements, and also to the future, is mindful of the fact that replacements > are ' needed. The average life given a passenger bus—as removed from the twenty years of an ordinary automobile —is four years, after which time it is uneconomical to run. For that reason the buses at present use, which are reaching the uneconomical stage, will be gradually replaced by the new conveyances. The buses at present in use have seating capacities ranging respectively from 26 to 33; but the three new buses and the ten it is intended to purchase, will all have accommodation for 30 passengers each—it being the intention of the Department to standardise the buses in this respect.

“It is possible,” said Mr. Cnrnehan, when asked whether it was intended to curtail the running of the suburban trains now the bus system was being extended. “It all depends on the public. The people are apparently showing preference for the buses. The position is the s-'inie in England and the United S* .