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Evening Star, Issue 14575, 25 May 1911, Page 1

Six yeans have pnssi<l since the first motor 1 1 us appeared on the LonA Million <l«n streets —a rattling. Passengers lumbering, malodorous a Day! vehicle. Every year has scon an improvement- in the type an<l an increase in the number, and non* one company alone., the Lomlon General Omnibus Company, have about 900 motor buses plying for hire and another 500 building. When the Coronation traffic is in full swing this company hope to have. ,something like 14.000 motor buses to meet ihe demands. Estimates show that this “fleet” will carry about 1.150,000 pa-sen-gem daily. Officially vended figures show that- in the- year 1904. wlien horses did the work, the General Omnibus Company earned no lower than 220,000.000 passengers. The. later estimate of the carrying power of existing and prospective motor buses indi- I cates the enormous aggregate ol over . 400,000,000 per annum. In other words, ; where seven years ago one peison jour- . neyod by horse bus. two now journey by . motor bus, tubes and underground rail- , wavs notwithstanding. Horse-drawn buses are sti.ll use ltd for linking up vaiiuus services, hut tho.ir number has decreased enormously since, the advent of the- motor bus. At one time the General Omnibus i Company alone, bad no fewer than 17.000 horses in liieir stables. Now they have onlv about 2,500. Soon even this small number will diiubiisb, when the new motor j fleet is ready tor the road Hitherto the j War Office lias relied largely upon tint j Lund. Ji bus hoc. r»; for a supply of seasoned animals for Army u.-e. but the rapid red tie - tiuii in the number of horses on the London streets indicates that the War Office will have to look elsewhere in the future to satisfy public requirements. One of .lie principal results of the perfecting of t lio j motor bus has lioen the extension of the ; rout os. On week days ono of the “Gone- | ral ’’ services starts from Ealing in the j extreme West and passes through Shop- j herd’s Bush, Oxford street, and the City to East Ham, a mat ter of seventeen miles, j The fare is (xl all the way. Chi Sundays j the Eastern terminus is Rippleside, three , miles further afield. Another line of j motors runs from Putney to Wanstcad, and j yet another horn Willesdon Green to Seven '■ Kings—each of them sixteen miles or over, | with a maximum fare- of 6d. With the advent of a new vehicle fresh occasional ( services are to ho opened up. On Sun- I days and Rank Holidays, for instance, 1 buses arc to ply between the Elephant and i Castlo and 'Warren Wood House, Eppinf , Forest, right to the famous Connaught ; Waters. |