RAILWAY ’BUSES

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 March 1926, Page 5

RAILWAY ’BUSES

THREE FOR SOUTH ISLAND.

DEPARTMENT’S NEW MOVE-

TO CAPTURE, TR AFFIC. ■ • (By Telegraph—Special to The Star.) WELLINGTON, March 8. Tfhe Railway Department is about to embark upon a further experiment in its campaign to popularise and. assist the railroads as a 1 means of passenger transport . A good deal bus been done - in the matter of testing light railroad conveyances such as the Sentinel steam car, (the Clayton steam oar, the petrol car, and--the latest innovation —the Ford rail ear, virtually an iron-shod motor car running on rails. The Railway Board is now making preparations, for running a motor ’bus m connection with certain lines which are not pro-vixig satisfactory from the point of view of revenue. The ’buses are to be similar in type to those plying for hire in the cities, seating from- 25 to 30 passengers; they have an emergency door at the rear, and four, wheel brakes, and are to.be run as a matter of economy, on the “pay as you enter'’ principle. Tins is the first step of its kind undertaken by the RaiLway Department, and it will be extended according to the results achieved by this initial venture. The districts in which it will be applied will he determined on consideration of the produetveness or unproductiveness of local railway services,, the puiblic demand, and the need for boosting up the use of a railway by the -public. Only three ’buses are being purchased , -immediately to ply on routes at Oamaru, Christchurch, and Dunedin. *

The Department realises the advantage of the more mobile ’hue unit,. with its smaller maintenance costs, on runs where frequent stops are made, and this is one of the principal reasons for the decision to employ ’buses on routes where frequency of stops by passenger trains retards a speedy service- and per- ' baps, entails- greater cost. The Department is still conducting experiments with new types of self-con-trolled, -and self-propelled vehicles recently put into commission. Difficulties are being encountered in some respects, but the Railway Board does not despair of surmounting them and adapting the vehicles, as may -be found necessary, to efficient- -service and -public convenience. Tire Ford, is a very light vehicle, 'but tests are to ibe made with -a view to seeing if it is capable of drawing a trailer. Tbe Clayton steam, waggon is - really a self-contained- railway carriage with a boiler and engine installation in a small carriage at one end, and controllable either from the front or the rear. It is not yet in -commission, but it is proposed, to put it into service on the Foxton line, and it has been designed as a- means o-f handling passenger traffic. Possibly the use of a trailer on this vehicle will also be necessary. - In all cases working costs, -suitability for service -and other factors are being*' closely watched, so that results, may be accurately gauged before the new types of vehicle are placed on sections for which they may be deemed satisfactory.