MOTOR BUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18759, 12 January 1923, Page 8

MOTOR BUSES

COMBINE IN SYDNEY. (From Onn Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 3. A scheme that is fast approaching consummation may give Sydney its long-sought relief from traffic congestion. The Australian General Omnibus Company—a purely Sydney enterprise—will be registered early next month to amalgamate and manage the ecpttered motor ’bus services of this city. So far 50 or more individual 'bus owners have been approached, and every one of them has expressed his willingness to join the company and transfer his fleet of ’buses to the syndicate. By February it is expected that the company, which will have a capital of £300,000, will have 200 'buses plying for hire in the metropolis itself. It is expected that the same fares as are nowdemanded on the trams will be charged for city runs, but that the charges will bo much less on the suburban routes. The present tramway service is hopelessly inadequate, and no relief is in sight for three or four years at least. In the circumstances, therefore, the attitude of the tramways in openly opposing tho rnotor 'bus proprietors is somewhat inexplicable. But notwithstanding the discouragement offered to their enterprise by officialdom, anS despite the fact that they have been restricted to limited routes and have been hampered by a strict police supervision that is not applied to tho trains, tho ’bus owners have succeeded in mailing fair profits and are assured of a rich harvest in the future. Without any co-ordination of effort they have already done much to relievo the rapidly-growing transport congestion of tho city; an efficiently-managed and up-to-date motor 'bus service will help very materially indeed to eliminate the traffic problem which the tramway authorities have beon thus far unable to solve.