ROADS AND RAILWAYS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 31 March 1928, Page 15

ROADS AND RAILWAYS

BUSES USED AS FEEDERS. The National Bonds and Motorists’ Association of New South W ales received the following statement from America concerning road betterment in the United States and its relation to tlie railway services : “At the end of 1926 motor registrations in the United States had increased to 22,335,009, of which 19,525,COO were passenger vehicles (including 70,030 buses) and 2,810,000 were lorries or trucks. The American railroads have used the growth of motor transport in a sensible way. Instead oi looking upon road transport as a harrn.iil competitor, the railroad companies have recognised it as an indispensable ‘feeder’ for their systems. “The large sums which have been spent on roads have immeasurably extended the areas served by the railroads. As regards freight traffic, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the total operating revenue, the railroads have accepted the motor truck as a useful way of escaping from nonremunerative short-haul business. For long-distance freight traffic in America the railroad is supreme, but with shorthaul traffic the railroad is often found voluntarily ‘contracting out’ with road haulage companies. BUSES INDTSP'ENS AIILE.

“As regards passenger traffic tlie American railroads have accepted the fact that the passenger motor vehicle is an indispensable element of passenger transport which has come to stay. “They have, therefore, gone into motor bus business themselves, and many railroads are now inaugurating bus services supplanting or supplementing railway passenger services. In New England, lor example, both the New Haven and Boston and Maine railroads are operating bus lines, which parallel nearly one-lialf of their railroad tracks. ~lt is realised in America that the old attitude of obstructing the use of motor vehicles was shortsighted." '