LONDON TRAFFIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 84, 29 May 1911, Page 4

LONDON TRAFFIC.

A MILLION PASSENGERS A DAY

•' 'Six years liar© passed since the first mo tor-1 ui s appeared on the London streets—a rattling - , lumbering malodorous vehicle. Every year has seen an improvement in the type and an increase in the number, and now one company alone, the London General Omnibus Company, has about 900 motor-buses plying for hire and another 500 building. When the Coronation traffic is in full swing this company hope to have something like 1400 motor-buses to meet the demands. Estimates show that this '‘fleet” will ca rry a limit 1,190,000 passengers daily. ... Ojiicialiy verified figures show that in', the year 1904, when horses did the ‘work, the General Omnibus ComSiiy carried no fewer than 220,000,-' 4; passengers. The later estimate of the carrying-power of existing and prospective, motor-buses indicates the enormous aggregate of over 400,000,000 per annum. Ju other words, when 'set’en years ago one person journeyed by horse-bus two now journey by motor-bus. Tubes and underground railways 'notwithstanding. Horse-drawh buses are still useful for linking up various services, but their number has decreased enormouslyl 'since the advent of the motor-bus. At ' one time the General Omnibus Company alone had no fewer than 17,000 horses in their stables. Now they have only about 2300. Soon oven this small number will diminish, when the new motor-fleet is ready for the road. Hitherto the War Office has relied largely upon the London ’bn? horses for a supply of seasoned animals to Army use, but the rapid ■reduction in Ihe number of horses on the London streets indicate that the AVar Office will have to look elsewhere in flic future to satisfy public requirements. One of the principal results of the perfecting of the motor-bus lias been the extension of the routes. On week-days one of the “General” services starts from Haling in the extreme west and passes through -Shepherd's Bush, Oxford street ,and the city to East Ham, a matter of seventeen miles. The faro is 6d all the wav. On Sundays the eastern terminus is Ripplc.side, three miles further afield. Another lino of motors runs from Putney to AVanstpad, and vet another from \V .'llesdongreon to Seven Kings—each of them sixteen miles or over, with a maximum faro of Gd. AVith the advent, of now vehicles fresh occasional services arc to be opened up. On Sundays and hank holidays, for instance, ’buses are to ply between the Elephant and Castle and AVarrou Wood House, Hoping Forest, right up to the lamons. Connaught A Voters.