Tramways and Other Forms of Transport

(2) Trackless trolley buses are suitable for traffic of moderate density, cross-town work, and feeders to tramways, where the roads are suitable for their use.

(3) Motor omnibuses have a wide range of usefulness for dealing with traffic varying from light to heavy. They are more mobile than . other forms of public transport vehicles, but create more congestion than tramways and reduce the capacity of the roads, especially at city termini, when used for dealing with heavy traffic. They are dependent on imported fuel. There are cases where their use to augment tramway services during the heavy peak loads is well worth consideration.

(4) Light railways, as developed for road traffic purposes in Great Britain, are similar to tramways. Powers authorizing their construction have not been used to a large extent for the express purpose intended by legislation, although the comparatively cheap form of construction (sleeper track) is being used to extend into the suburbs some large city tramway undertakings.

(5) Suburban railways are used in large cities for the transportation between localities as contrasted with pick-up traffic along the routes. The services are frequently superimposed on main line railway services.

Even with the best of co-ordination of the various forms of transport, there is bound to be a certain amount of direct or indirect competition between them, and to organize the best scheme for any particular conditions on their merits as transport agencies, calls for high degree of experience and expert transport knowledge. The desirability of the co-ordination of the various forms of transport to enable all to function according to their respective merits was appreciated by the Government, and a royal commission was appointed in 1928 to consider the matter. The evidence given before the joint committee of both houses of parliament in connection with the omnibus powers being sought by the railway companies indicates the urgent necessity of legis lation to deal with this important question. There is a growing feeling that legislation in this connection is vital to the co-ordi nation of this country's transport services, and to protect and encourage them in such a way as to ensure healthy expansion and improvements in these services on which England depends for its industrial welfare. See also LONDON : Communications.

Early History.

Mass transportation of passengers in cities had its origin in the omnibus service established in Paris in 1819, but 12 years elapsed before the first omnibus made its ap pearance in the United States in 1831. This was a vehicle con structed by the famous carriage builder, John Stephenson, and operated on Broadway, New York, between Bond street and the Battery. The fare was 12-i cents. Previous to that, stage-coaches had been in operation between New York and other cities for some 75 years. The omnibus service, however, was a novelty. Briefly, the idea was to operate passenger-carrying service at rela tively frequent intervals over a short route wholly within the city in contrast to the less frequent stage-coach service operated over relatively long routes between cities. This new idea took hold rapidly and it was not long before New York was literally filled with horse-drawn omnibuses clattering up and down the streets.

It so happened, however, that another new idea, which was eventually to put the horse-drawn omnibus out of business, was de veloped at almost the same time. This second new idea was to build a track of iron rails laid on stone ties in the centre of the street and to equip vehicles with flanged wheels so that they could be drawn faster and more easily over the smooth metal right-of way than the omnibuses could be drawn over the rough cobble stones. Some 56 years earlier the first railway using iron rails had been built at Sheffield, England, but it had been utilized only for the transport of freight. The carrying of passengers by rail did not begin until 1825, when the Stockton and Darlington rail way started service on a i2mi. line between those two English cities. In the United States, a somewhat similar service was started a few years later by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad be tween Baltimore and Ellicotts Mills, a distance of 14 miles. Shortly after this, the remarkable performance of George Stephen son's locomotive "The Rocket" in England and the successful trial of the American-built locomotive "De Witt Clinton" greatly stim ulated interest in railroading on both sides of the ocean.