RUSH FOR TRANSPORT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19314, 3 May 1937, Page 5

RUSH FOR TRANSPORT

LONDON LINES CONGESTED SPREADING OF DISPUTE APPEAL TO PROVINCES (Elec. Tol. Copyright—-United Tress Assn.) (Deed. May 0, .11.15 n.m.) ' LONDON, May 2. London’s Ims strike, resulting from the dispute over tlie claim for a woiking dav of seven hours and a-half, was started at midnight last night. Simultaneously, 120,000 provincial busmen were called on to cease work and support ' the unofficial strike, which already has affected 10 counties.

Except for the strikers outside garages, cat-calling and booing the drivers of trams, the first morning ot the strike was uneventful, though scarcely so for regular bus patrons, who had to fight to get a place on the packed trams. Many had to trudge to the nearest railways, while thousands walked or cycled to work. The taxi-cabs reaped a harvest.

The presence of cup tie crowds, combined with the usual crush of Londoners, led to remarkable scenes in London. The midnight crowds relying on tube railways for getting home in the absence of buses found the stations already blocked and the trains packed. Many were stranded on platforms when the last trains departed and sought taxis in vain. These were all engaged and thousands of people had a long tramp home.

All those possessing cars used them to go to the theatres, this resulting in unprecedented traffic blocks when the audiences poured out into the streets again.

Greater London contains ordinarily a population of 8,202,818, but, while the County of London, which includes the big residential areas of the immediate suburbs, has rather more than half that number, in the actual City there are only 10,000 residents. By far tho greatest part of the daily populace of the City uses bus services, if not on its way into town from the suburbs, at least for transport from the station to individual places of business. Trams, underground railways, and ordinary trains are the other principal transport systems of the present day.