RAILWAY MOTOR CARS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14058, 16 November 1909, Page 3

RAILWAY MOTOR CARS.

USED IN ENGLAND. On two or three occasions v.i ("'iaranaki Herald ), have advocated the use of motor cars on some of tilt .Nciv Zealand railways, win-re tliu traffic is not large enough to warrain thi- frequent running of iiilly c.|iiippec; trains. A correspondent in linmingham, Mr John Morgan, noticing out earliest remarks on the subject, lias b.en good enough to forward us sotut informal ion on the suhiert. From tint we gather that, the Great Western Railway Company inns motor ear 01 auto-ear services solely on some of it> brunch lines in country districts connecting small towns, while in nioi'f populous city suburban districts, as, 101 instance, between Birmingham and itsuburbs and neighbouring towns lik> Sniethwick motor cars are tun in addition to tin; regular train service* Thus there are running out of Mirniiiiuliam, between the ordinary trains at 8.32 a.m. and 0.40 a.m. to Danzcy ane intr rmediate stations, three motor cal trips at 5*..1 D. <).G and S).:V>. Then between Cbeltenhain and Hoiieybournc they have only a motor car service I running at about, hourly intervals either way. The.sf- cars, which are oi '. one class only, run on the railway, thus giving a cheap and efficient pa.ssengei service. We have no information as i< the cost, hut; it may easily be demonstrated that such a service in sparsely populated districts, or where frequent communication is desired by small numbers of passengers, the motor car service must be vastly cheaper than the ordinary train service. Take the New Plymouth-Breakwater line for exampu . To run an ordinary train every hour would be costly and unwarranted by the traffic, but a single car, carrying, say. twenty passengers, might be run backwards ami forwards at a very low cost. The average working expense of ordinary trains per train mile on our railways is about five shillings, while the average cost of running a motor car of ten or twelve horse power on the metalled roads is probably less than a penny per mile for petrol. Til; 1 expense of the chauffeur's wages would of course depend on the average daily distance covered, but suppose we put it down at threepence jicr mile, ana allow another twopence for incidentals, such as upkeep, etc, we have a total expense per mile of sixpence. The power named would be more than ample to carry twenty passengers on the smooth track and easy grades of

the railways, so that it will be seen the running cost would bo immensely in favour of motor cars as against ordinary trains where the traffic is light. It seems absurd to run a locomotive with two oi- three heavy coaches and a guard's van for perhaps a dozen passengers, as we believe is frequently done on some of our New Zealand linos, and if motor cars were introduced to take the places of trains on some of the lines much better services might '"' arranged at greatly reduced cost. At any rate it is a matter which warrants full investigation, and we doubt not that if the Minister for Railways made inquiry of Mr .1. C InglK general manager of the Croat Western Railway Company, or Mr .1. Morris, the company's line superintendent, either of those gent.lemon would willingly furnish valuable information.