MOTOR BUSES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 June 1924, Page 5

MOTOR BUSES.

STANDARDISED TYPE PREFERRED. BY CABLE—rRESB ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT NEW YORK, June 19. In view of the discussions on transit problems in the various Australian cities, especially Adelaide and Melbourne, with reference to the practicability of the motor ’bus, Mr R. E. Felder, general manager of the Fifth Avenue ’Bus Co., and a leading American authority on this question, was interviewed. Mr Felder said: “If I understand the Australian highways, especially in the suburbs, are inferior to those of the United States in finish of surfaces, /but this is easily counterbalanced by their width, which assures reduced running time. The successful operation of ’buses depends principally upon the use of a standardised type of vehicle, and any of the dozen reputable types is likely to give good results on Australian roads, provided they have a sufficiently long wheel base to distribute the shocks more evenly. It is more important to employ a standardised type, even at the risk of being imperfectly adapted to colonial roads, than to use a variety of ’buses of relatively higher quality, because the latter require the maintenance of a multiplicity of repair stocks which eats ruinously into profits. The mixed types, moreover, necessitate the instruction of drivers to operate the different ’buses, while the employment of a standard type permits a driver to quickly grow accustomed to its operation, eventually enabling him often to make his own repairs en route and increasing the active earning power of the vehicle.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.