SYDNEY'S BUSES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 11, 14 July 1928, Page 17

SYDNEY'S BUSES

TEN YEARS' FRANCHISE SOUGHT (From "The Post's", Representative.) SYDNEY, sth July. The Government is likely to bo confronted with a' first-class crisis in its life if it lays hands on the privatclyowncd buses in the metropolis of Sydney. Quito a number of tlie municipal councils havo thrown their weight behind the bus operators in the latter's campaign for a ten years unfettered franchise. Other' councils are not opposing them. This is the first big move to win a proper status for motor transport in Sydney. That the buses have justified their existence' is clear from figures. In fact, it is because of a recognition of their -place in the sun and of the fact that they arc paying while tho trams and-trains are losing, that the Government wants to have 'some say in their control. 'Buses carrying nearly half a million people, and' with a daily average mileage of 46,500, or more than 17,000,000, miles a year, leave terminals in the metropolis about 9720 times each day. -Fiom tho Central Station area alone, buses leave 0367 times daily. This gives I idea, incidentally, of Sydney's traffic. 'It is estimated that, in five years' time, ,at the present rate,' Australian money j invested in-motor transportation will ■ exceed the amount invested in the railI ways and tramways. The. Government is confronted with tho indisputable ! fact that, for every, mile of train arid tram track in New South Wales, there I are more than two-miles of main road capable of carrying-speedy and powerful motor vehicles with which the trainß and the trams cannot. compete.