The motor-'bus in London
Monday 13 February 1905
As with most new things, London has not been precipitate in introducing the motor-bus to its streets. Perhaps the only notable instance since the time of the early Victorian steam carriage was Mr. Strakers two steel-tyred buses which ran between Victoria Station and Kennington Gate soon after the act of 1896 abolished the red flag restriction and made motor travel possible. They disappeared after two years, in which their misfortunes established the bad name from which the motor-bus has hardly yet recovered. They were before their time, but it was a plucky attempt. The next appearance of the motor in a public carriage was when a service of cars was run between Hammersmith and Piccadilly. But these were ordinary motor-cars, and the motor-bus did not again appear until about three months ago, when Messrs. Tilling placed a big German-made motor-bus on their ancient route between Peckham and Oxford Circus. They have now three on the road (writes a London representative of the Manchester Guardian), and at the end of March expect to have increased the number to fourteen.
The type is the Milnes-Daimler of 20 h.p., three speeds, and live axle drive. It carries (inside and outside) 31 passengers, and has a speed of twelve miles an hour. They are experimenting with several tyres. In appearance the car seems a little unwieldy; the wheels, which are set further forward than in ordinary vehicles, give it a somewhat odd look. But Messrs. Tilling report excellent results. Each motor-bus carried about 1,000 passengers a day, and they make the journey of five miles and a quarter in less than forty minutes, including all stops. This enterprise is particularly interesting, for the run is a long, level one, and the motor-bus for most of the way competes with the London County Councils electric car. Messrs. Tilling assert that they are able to make faster journeys than the cars because of the greater mobility of the bus, which does not require to keep to rails, despite the handicap that by police regulations the bus is required to stop wherever the passenger requires it, while the car only stops at regular stations. This raises the question as to the wisdom of the corporations in committing themselves entirely to the tram system. Messrs. Tillings representative argued that with the increased speed of their motor-buses they could in course of time give the same service with half the number of buses. This would, of course, mean a decrease of buses in the streets, and to a great extent the motor-bus would help to solve the London traffic problem.
The London General Omnibus Company, who as the greatest of the London bus companies had most to lose by any wrong step, had deliberated over the idea for some years before they began to change their motive power. Two motor-buses of a different type from Messrs. Tillings have now been on the Hammersmith and Piccadilly route for about three weeks. The chief reason for the delay was the fact that they had 1,600 serviceable horse-buses on their hands, and they are now about to turn them into motor-buses by mounting them on a motor chassis. The motors are of two types the Orion (a Swiss kind) and the Milnes-Daimler while the Company have given orders for several other makes. The manager tells me that about twenty are being built, and that they hope to have fifty on the streets in June. Their speed will be about eleven miles an hour. They carry, of course, the usual 26 passengers.
The London Generals other type now in use is a smart steam-car with no roof seats. It is intended to carry 16 passengers, but the police will not allow the two front seats beside the driver and the single seat beside the conductor to be used. This decision is the more regrettable as these seats held out our last chance to continue under modern conditions the old friendly relations with that notable man the bus driver. For one generation at least we are to have the old bus driver in the motor-bus, as several companies which are dispensing with their horses are training their drivers, as the Manchester Corporation did, to drive with the new power. It has been found that they soon learn all that is necessary. But the manager said that the single-deck type had not given his Company satisfaction and that they would probably hold to the other type entirely. He did not take quite as sanguine a view as Messrs. Tillings representative of the possibilities of the motor-bus. He thought that two motor-buses would be able to do the same work as one horse bus, and as to the traffic problem, by the time they had their full service on the road the growth of population and the increased popularity which the speedier car will bring would make it necessary to have on the road quite as many motor-buses as they now have horse-buses.
The Atlas and Waterloo Association have two buses, somewhat similar to Messrs. Tillings, and the Road Car Company have a couple of single-deck buses running from the Marble Arch to Kilburn. The London Power Omnibus Company have had for some time a service of small buses in the north. Every week brings a new motor-bus to the street, and they have now come to stay. The bus horses have become used to them, and see them rush past without a snort. It will be a couple of years at least before the horse-bus will seem to us an odd thing in the streets, but its end cannot be very far off.
The Manchester Tramways Committee have, as we reported last week, decided to run motor-buses between the Palatine Road terminus and Northenden in the summer.