The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1926. THE ’BUS SERVICE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 21 June 1926, Page 8

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1926. THE ’BUS SERVICE.

Before tho Omnibus Committee of the Borough Council commits the ratepayers to an outlay «oi nearly £ L 0,000 m tho purchase of a. fleet of motor ’buses, equipped to provide Timaru with an up-to-date aud more frequent service on selected routes, it is manifestly desirable that the fullest investigation should be made not only reg*ardiug the most useful type of ’bus, but also the development of motive' power now taking’ place in England and the. United States. The problem facing the Boroujpt Council has two sides: To. the passenger, tho problem, is to find a. vehicle when he wants it; to the controlling authority, the problem is to collect enough fares .to liquidate expenses, pay licenses, interest, and provide, depreciation. The motor bus lia» revolutionised the means __ of transportation, hut._ there has been no stagnation in the development of means of motive power. Hence it rs the bonnden duty of the municipal authorities to make absolutely certain hint the borough will not be saddled with a fleet of ’buses which will be obsolete before, the. buses aic any time in commission. The Omnibus Committee should not lose sight of the plain fact that a. new era is opening in omnibus transportation. Moreover, if the Borough Council insists upon exercising its authority under (lio new regulations, to retain a monopoly of the ’bus services within the borough, no muddling through will bo tolerated by the people. As a recent writer' on local transportation says:

Comfort, for the traveller is a matter ot concern to the transportation company, and one ot the discomforts incidental to those motor , buses that depend upon the gear shift | is the jerky action at starting and ; the disagreeable noises of clashing gears. It is also a shortcoming ot 1 the gear shift type of ’bus that there 1 is an appreciable loss of time in com- < ing up to speed which, multiplied by | tho number of stops, affects the time j required for a round trip, aud there- ' fore the number of passengers carried for the day.

To introduce a means of eliminating gears in the starting of a heavy vehicle, and to substitute a. smooth acceleration for one of the jerks, is desirable for important reasons, only one of which is the riders’ comfort. . . Years of experiment have boon given to the study of the problem, and a solution has been found in the use of an electric system with stands between the driving engine aud the driven wheels, forming a cushion which does awnv with mechanical shock. Instead of steel driving steel, as between the engine and the axle, the engine drives a generator whose current turns a motor, or motors, geared to the axle.

Such a revolution in the existing motor drive should be exhaustively examined by the Omnibus Committee of the. Boroug.-i Council which has been entrusted with the outlay of nearly ,£IO,OOO. Is it too .much to ask that the borough electrical engineer should be _ asked to submit, a report on this the borough ’bus service ? Tbs system of power transmission, though electrical apparatus from engine to wheels in the place of intermediate gearing amt clutch median ism is the. one; which was mentioned by Mr Herbert Hall in a- letter on tho ’bus service, addressed to us somci days, ago. It. is a system which has been successfully applied by some ot the. big companies, to gaselcetrie. and oil-electric, rail cars and locomotives. In its application to the. motor ’bus, the new system has been welcomed by transportation companies as a help in solving some of. their modern problems in carrying of people. Already companies- are purchasing’ gas-electric, driven ’buses in lniudreds, and botJi transportation companies and passengers arc loud in their praise, of flic new system. Tlie advantages of the gas-electric system in the motor bus have been described from the standpoint. of the operating company by officials of Philadelphia liural Transit. Company. Mr 11. M. Horton, president of the company, in a paper read before the Society of Automotive Engineers said: "‘Our first delivery of tho 200 buses which we have ordered was made in dune., and sjnee that time we have placed about. 100 buses in services. I know of no instance where a fleet of ’buses of this size has been placed in service with a.s little trouble as we have encountered. As you know, in the g-asi-eleclric ’bus, there lias been substituted for the clutch, transmission and differential, a generator, control switch, and two elec trio motors, producing a vehicle unmatched for case of control, rapid, and smooth acceleration, and quiet, operation. That is tho story of the electric drive in a. nutshell.” It is interesting to note that the Now Zealand Hallways is already experimenting* with the electric locomotive, and a claim has already been made that, the new system will very materially cheapen railway travel. Astonishing claims ain being advanced by the advocates of oil-electrio and gas-electric, driven ’buses and railway cars and locomotives. Easy and smooth acceleration is demanded by passengers. The smoother the acceleration the more attractive a ride the controllers of the ’bus service have, to sell, since present-day public arc generally lovers of luxury and ease and the next most attractive thing is speed in comfort, and Iho ’bus which will start up smoothly, dominating all the jostling possible, supplies a more, attractive ride. So far as we can ascertain, nothing bus yet developed which lias shown that the gas-electric principle is

not correct. Tho system, it is claimed, lias proved satisfactory and reliable, and we are sure the ratepayers will expect the Omnibus Committee—in view of the fact that municipally-controlled Ims services are oil their trial—to investigate in a, most exhaustive way the most recent developments in what might be called automotive power in relation to municipal transportation services.