TRAMWAYS AND OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORT Since the advent of electric tramways—and especially during the past two decades—other forms of road transport, namely, trackless trolley buses, petrol (gasolene) motor omnibuses, and light railways, also the electrification of suburban railways, have been developed to provide increased travelling facilities for the ever-growing requirements of the public. In the absence of any comprehensive scheme for the co-ordination of these different forms of services there has been much overlapping and wasteful competition between them, and reference is made below to pro posed legislation with the object of co-ordination of the various services. Every form of transport possesses special merits for certain conditions and characteristics of traffic.
In the case of tramways, these were originally established to provide a better track than that offered by the then inadequate or bad state of the roads. Legislation authorizing the construc tion of tramways gave their owners a monopoly in the form of the exclusive right to operate vehicles with flanged wheels over the lines. For these rights many onerous obligations were im posed, indicating that electric tramways are expensive to estab lish and to operate, because they have been saddled with costs and obligations by obsolete legislation passed before the advent of the electric tramway; but in spite of this the operating costs per seat mile are less than those for any other road passenger transport.
Light railways are very similar to tramways. The procedure in obtaining powers to establish and operate them is different, and the terms on which they can be acquired by the local authorities of the districts served may in some cases be more favourable to the promoters than is the case with tramways. They are, like railways, chargeable with only one-fourth of the district rates; but for all practical purposes where they have been constructed along roads as a means of passenger transport, they fall into the same category as tramways. In passing the Light Railways Act 1896, parliament clearly indicated tramway lines constructed under this act being built with a cheap form of construction with rails laid on sleepers like railways, and used for urban and inter urban work, connecting up hamlets and villages, and to encourage general agricultural, fishing and freer intercourse between neigh bouring small towns.
Trackless trolley buses were designed to serve specific routes with road transport facilities, and are suitable for dealing with traffic features similar to those which modern tramways are de signed to provide, though in less densely populated districts. They have the advantage over tramways of costing less to establish and run, and are more flexible in operation inasmuch as they are free to deviate from a fixed path. They cannot, however, be reversed at the termini of routes with the same ease as tramcars. While such services have not been developed much compared with other forms of road transport, they have been established by several municipalities and companies in this country and on the Continent to deal with moderately dense traffic. Their sphere of usefulness is in cases where there is a moderate flow of traffic along a specific route having a good road surface. Like tramways and light railways they are very suitable for short-distance traffic.
For the year 1926-27 nineteen local authorities and one company operated trackless trolley undertakings in Great Britain, while twenty-one local authorities did not exercise their statutory powers. The following are some particulars of the operating results abstracted from the return issued by the Ministry of Transport : Miles of route operated . . . . . . . 84.13 Capital expenditure . . . . . . . Total income ...... . . 1286,391 Total working expenses . . . . . . . Net revenue . . ...... . . 136,436 Car miles run . ...... . . 5,092,956 Passengers carried . ...... . . 50,382,193 Suburban railways also serve local traffic requirements in a very efficient manner, although the class of traffic for which they are pre-eminently designed is somewhat different from that par ticular kind of local traffic which forms so large a proportion of that served by tramways, light railways and trackless trolley buses. The three latter forms of road transport are designed primarily for frequent stops at short intervals—a continual pick ing up and setting down of passengers along their routes— whereas the passenger traffic on suburban railways consists chiefly of large numbers of passengers conveyed from the centre of one locality to another, with comparatively short journeys to and from the railway stations.