THE UP-TO-DATE MOTOR BUS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12001, 19 October 1906, Page 5

THE UP-TO-DATE MOTOR BUS.

♦ A» L«a^>:c to Breakdown as the Old Type. Observations of a Wanganul Resident The motor 'bus, so far as the WTanganui Borough Council is concerned, has been put right out of court, but in order to satisfy those who claim that th« past records of failure relate only to buses of an obselete type, the obversations of one who has seen the very latest patterns running in London so short a time ago as six weeks, may be quoted to show that the up-to-date motor omnibus is just as likely to prove unsatisfacotry as the type from which it has been evolved. The gentleman in question is Mr Thos. Glover, of St. John's Hill, wellknown as a shrewd and practical man, who a day or two ago arrived back in Wanganui from a trip to the Old Country. Learning that Mr Glover had some very decided opinions regarding the motor 'bus, one of our staff waited on him yesterday in order to hear what he had to say. Our readers may remember that in its leading article of the 10th inst., the Chronicle quoted the following remark from the report of the Select Committee on Motor Omnibuses which some time ago sat in London: — "We believe that as many as 25 per cent of these omnibuses are in garage undergoing adjustment or repairs on anyone day." Twenty-five is a big percentage of breakdown, more especially in a small serivce such as Wanganui can afford, and it will be noticed that Mr Glover quoted this tendency of the motor 'bus as a serious drawback to its usefulness. Mr Glover told our representative ther* was no doubt of the extensive übb of motor 'buses at Home, and that he had seen thousands of them in London, the other big cities, and on country roads. In the country they were much used for communication between towns, especially with cities near by. At Portsmouth, for instance, there were three or four which ran out 50 or 60 miles each day into the country and back, but said Mr Glover, "If you go out by one, you can't tell whether you will come back by it or by train. If you come back in the 'bus, you reckon yourself lucky." Mr Glover spoke further on the motor 'bus's liability to breakdown, which he considered would yet prove it a a failure, spite of the fact that the proprietors were trying every possible move to popularise it. In London, he remarked, it was no exaggeration to say — in fact he would not mind betting on it — that one could not go 200 yards without seeing a broken down motor 'bus. Sometimes it was a serious breakdown, sometimes slight. It did not stop the traffic for the simple reason that there were so many of them, and no sooner did a breakdown occur, than another was along in a minute and took the passengers up. In fact it almost seemed as if the proprietors had emergency 'buses ready for such cases. Not only that, but small cars were employed to run about and attend to broken down 'buses, repairing them if the dam* age was Blight, or towing them home if they could not be repaired on the spot. In reply to questions as to other drawbacks, Mr Glover said the smell of a motor 'bus was very bad, and often made one put his hand to his nose, and look into the shop windows till it was past. It was a common thing to hear people say, "Mind the stink pot!" when one was approaching. They were not unduly noisy, and though there was not the iolHnw of a horse 'bus, the vibra+ion was still very bad in some eases, some types being worse than others in this respect. They were very liable to accident, and he himself saw a bad one in London a few weeks ago, when a motor 'bus smashed up a cab, threw over another 'bus, and crashed into a shop completely wreckit. The cause of this and many other accidents was the steering gear getting out of order, which often occurred, with the result that the 'bus 'became quite unmanageable.. The reason for the great development of the motor 'bus, said Mr Glover, lay simply in the fact that there were no trams in London in the city itself. People, therefore, had only the horse 'bus and ' the motor 'bus, and the latter being much more speedy they patronised jt. In addition to being faster, it was large and better seated. Opinion on its merits was divided at Horne — that is among the public who used it, — but as a general rule the people were not altogether enamoured of it, and he repeated that it was only because it got over the ground faster than a horse 'bus, and not because of any inherent excellence that it was used so largely. "Wherever people can get an electric car." said Mr Glover significantly, "they simply won't look at a motor 'bus." "Are these 'buses you refer to as breaking down so often, of the latest type?" asked our reporter of Mr Glover, who replied that they were. New 'buses were being put on every day, he said, and to his own knowledge there were a thousand building for one London company alone. In fact the companies were doing all thej possibly could to push the motor 'bus ahead. Yet the newer 'buses were just as liable to breakdown as the older ones. Sometimes it was only a short stop of 9 minutes for repairs, sometimes they were an hour before getting under way again. As previously stated, other 'buses took the passengers along to the journey's end, but said Mr Glover, "you won't have so many 'buses in W 7 anganui as to be able to rely on that here.." ' Mr Glover said he could not say anything about the cost per mile, or the general expenses of motor 'buses except from hearsay, but he believed they were subject to heavy wear and tear, especially on country roads. One reason why they were much used in the country was because they ran sometimes 50 miles out and back in one day which, a horse 'bus could not do, but even then breakdowns happened. Some cities, however, were extending their tramway systems into the country. The tram lines ran along the siiles of the roiwi, -were bult something after the style of light railways, and the people liked them much better than motor 'buses. As to the important question of roads, Mr Glover remarked that in London motor 'buses generally ran on asphalt or wood block surfaces, mostly the former. But, he stated emphatically, the road* here were utterly unfit for them. The Wanganui streets were not as good as a country road in England, and would shake a motor 'bus to pieces. Again • motor 'bus was a heavy vehicle — heavier than a traction engine — and would smash' up drains and pipes running across the streets. "It would," he said in conclusion, "be simply madness to go in for then here."