BUSES IN TORONTO

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 10

BUSES IN TORONTO

PUBLICLY-OWNED SYSTEM. TORONTO, July-23.' The other day 65 buses, and motorcoaches carried a parade of some 2500 picnickers to a rural pleasure park. All of the buses Were owned and operated by the city of- Toronto. Toronto is now the largest bus operator in Canada. Citizens of Toronto, through the Toronto Transportation Commission, own and operate a fleet of buses that now totals 117, and is growing almost daily. The. buses do not restrict themselves to provide transportation services within the city of Toronto, but operate on routes that stretch out as far as 100 miles from Toronto. One regular daily schedule extends as far as Niagara Falls and Buffalo. This new development emphasises, among other things, the claim that Toronto, despite its conservative politics, is the public ownership stronghold of the North American continent. The Telephone Company and the Gas Company are’ the only public service enterprises that have escaped the maw of public ownership. An estimate of the capital value of Toronto’s publicly-owned service puts' the figure at £24,200,000. The Transportation Commission came into existence six years ago,. when the pri-vately-owned street railway was taken over by the city. Immediately a few buses were put in operation, as feeders to serve outlying districts which had hitherto been denied-service .by the private company. “ • Next, when the Commission found that the increasing use of motor cars was cutting seriously into its revenue, it established motor-coach lines through residential districts, giving motor-car owners as comfortable a ride down town as-.in their private cars. These motor coach routes proved successful. The fare,.-is .15 cents. Private owners left their Cars at home. Then the commission decided that it would eliminate the competition of sight-seeing buses and so it bought out all the “rubber-neck waggons” and operates them. It was finalij r forced into the interurban business, and recently it purchased two of the largest coach lines operating on nearby highways, the White Star lines and the Lake Shore Transit Company. The 117 city-owned

buses now represent an investment of £300,000. Even -in Toronto, the growth of a network of bus lines, operated by the citizens Transportation Commission has caused not a little surprise. Some of . the cit'y fathers have ’questioned the authority of the commission to purchase two competitive bus lines, and then announce the deal to the citizens, as well as the expediency of the venture. The answer of the commission’s management is definite. “We are merely following what has been found to be practice,” says Mr D. W. Harvey, general manager of the system. „ . , Toronto-owned buses now run as ■ regular routes, to Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Brentford, and many other points. Special service coaches carry hundreds of sight-seers every day within the city limit. The Transportation Commission buses are linked with the association of Grey Line operators, which operates a mutual service organisation, including sight-seeing lines •in 20 American cities and a number of foreign centres. The advantages of the link with this organisation include a large amount of advertising that- books parties for Toronto. One agent brings approximately 400 tourists a day during the summer from Niagara Falls. Their itinerary includes a sight-see-ing tour of Toronto. Every day many of the commission’s coaches are chartered by societies or other groups of people for private trips to points outside Toronto. Last winter one organisation chartered 52 coaches' to carry, an excursion of 965 people to see the illuminated ice formations at Niagara Falls. Some of these figures indicate a new problem for the passenger-earning departments of the railways. Another new activity of the commission is a fleet of ferry boats on Toronto bay and an amusement park on ..the, Island. this year, purchased from: thp' private company that has operated these enterprises for a generation. r •