tramways; for lack of authority it took no part in the construction of the tubes. The Courts even prevented its using the "feeding omnibuses which had been purchased under statutory powers as part of a tramway undertaking; and Parliament refused it powers to run omnibuses as feeders or otherwise.

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93. It was on representations from the London County Council that the Royal Commission on London Traffic was appointed in 1903.

Failure of Competition.

94. Competition in London, coupled with the total lack of coordination, resulted in heavy financial losses to some of the companies. The combination of interests which exists to-day was formed between the electric railways, tubes, suburban tramways, and the omnibuses. One immediate effect of this combination and unified management was better service to the public from linking up, through services, etc. Londoners were educated to use to the best advantage the facilities which were under the control of the combined companies. Initiative and enterprise were shown in improving the services. Certain lines were made more remunerative. Profits were pooled. Several of the most serviceable lines in London are unprofitable in themselves, but must be kept going in the common interest. The Metropolitan District Railway, for instance, has a mileage of 243 miles and a capital of £13,700,000; it carries 140 million passengers a year; it has assisted in building up some of the most populous western suburbs, and yet in the whole course of its sixty years existence it has only on two or three occasions paid infinitesimal dividends on its 3 millions Ordinary Stock. The average net return on the capital of the combined companies is small. Owing to the expenses of promotion and the waste of competition in the past, some portion of the nominal capital is not represented by material assets.

95. The combination of interests, by making some services more remunerative, is thereby in a better position to carry on services which must always remain unprofitable.

Street Services: Tramways and Omnibuses.

96. The requirements of traffic are inexorable. Particular services, such as early and late trains, linking up and connecting facilities, development routes, must be carried on although in themselves unremunerative. Transport facilities should be ahead of public requirements in a great and growing community. The obligation to keep up unremunerative services has, in fairness, to be shared by the whole organisation. The unification of the interests now controlled by the "Combine can reduce or eliminate competition among its own services, but is not likely to do so in regard to services of omnibuses which it owns and tramways which it leases using the same routes. Competition exists in an acute form between the municipal tramways in London and

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suburban districts, on the one hand, and the Combine ubiquitous omnibus services, on the other.

97. There is no monopoly in omnibus traffic, but attempts have been made to create vested interests or special privileges. The Select Committee on Metropolitan Transport, which reported in 1919, said :

"There is no ground whatever for the acceptance of the 'Combine' view that their surface activities merit, at least so far as omnibuses are concerned, any special franchise, and certainly not a monopoly, and their antagonism to L.C.C. (and presumably any other) development, either in respect of tramway extension or motor-'bus running, would not be entertained by any Executive Authority which aimed at making London transport effective and efficient, and which might fitly issue an authorisation to the County Council to run omnibuses should it wish to do so. It is very necessary, in the opinion of your Committee, to lay stress on this point, because all the Combine' evidence tended to show that its operations are aimed at pegging out claims' which one day may be put forward as vested rights."

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In practice, the "Combine" will succeed in keeping any big rival off the streets, but it is threatened with numerous small competitors. The licensing authority-the Commissioner of Policecannot decline to license additional omnibuses, or exclude them from routes which they favour, as to do either would be to sanction monopolist rights in the use of the streets which do not exist, and to restrict private enterprise. The result of such competition will be that there will be congestion-a nuisance and a source of danger on the streets carrying the more remunerative services until such services cease to pay. If the remunerative services are impoverished by competition there must follow withdrawal of vehicles from unremunerative routes, so that in the end the public as a whole will have to pay higher fares for worse services.

98. The omnibus service is vulnerable from another quarter. Parliament has declined to give the London County Council powers to run omnibuses. A Committee of the House of Commons declined in 1920 to give the Lowestoft Corporation powers to run trolley vehicles on certain routes "so long as the present company is giving an efficient and adequate service." On the other hand, more than a hundred municipalities throughout the country have obtained powers to run omnibuses to feed and supplement their tramway services. When capital expenditure on local government undertakings has to be carefully considered it would be altogether against public interest to force a municipality to extend its tramway system, if, as an alternative, it can meet its traffic requirements more cheaply by omnibuses. Every year more Bills are passed authorising municipal tramway undertakings to run omnibuses. On this hypothesis it seems improbable that the municipal tramway undertakings in the larger centres of Greater London-in West Ham, Croydon, East Ham or Walthamstow-can permanently be denied the right to run omnibuses to serve expanding communities. To do so would be to penalise public authorities and protect private interests. It would be tantamount to legalising the use of the streets exclu

sively by one class of traffic which did not pay for the privilege and had no statutory duties towards the public.

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99. The "Combine "'s omnibus service is therefore open to omnibus competition from two quarters, while it has to face, in addition, competition from the ten municipal tramway undertakings in Greater London. In this competition tramways have an advantage which may not be regarded by ratepayers as a whole as quite legitimate; deficiencies on tramways accounts can be made up from the rates. In common with most city traffic services, owing to the disturbing abnormal conditions of recent years, the municipal tramways, after Renewal and Reserve Funds were exhausted, have had to draw upon the rates to make up their charges for repayment of capital which are imposed upon them. The heavy losses on London omnibuses were made up by the Combine out of surpluses from their profit-earning railways. 100. The subsidising of cheap travel from the rates is met with equanimity by some Authorities, especially in so far as it is due merely to repayment of sums borrowed on capital account, but it cannot be regarded as a healthy or permanent feature of municipal life. The losses in recent abnormal years have occurred to company as well as municipal undertakings, and are not peculiar to this country. The deficits on municipal tramways in Greater London are now being made good by increasing receipts, and financial results are improving all round, but these suburban districts are handicapped in two ways. In the first place, the tramway mileage of each of them is short-Croydon 11 miles, East Ham 7, Erith 43, Ilford 7, Leyton 9, Walthamstow 9, and West Ham 163. These undertakings are also handicapped from the point of view of economical working, because each only forms part of a service in one continuous urban area, while they are a the same time subject to competition by omnibuses both in local and through traffic. In order to escape from one of these disadvantages, Leyton has arranged for the London County Council to operate its tramways, whilst the Barking tramways are now leased to the East Ham and Ilford Councils.

101. The deficit on the London County Council tramways in 1920 and 1921 was large in amount, but less on any mileage basis than in the case of the smaller suburban enterprises, and the system is again paying its way. Even greater deficiencies were incurred in the same years by the London General Omnibus Company, greater in proportion to the number of passengers carried or miles run. The loss in both cases was increased, if not caused, by the competition between the rival services, from which the public did not benefit.

The Respective Merits of Tramways and Omnibuses.

102. One criticism directed against the municipal tramways is that part of the capital cost for construction is put down for street widening. The matter has been investigated in London

by independent accountants, and it has been held that the proportion set aside for street improvements is fair, while the omnibuses have contributed hardly anything to street improvements. On the other hand, the tramways pay rates on their permanent way and maintain the paving along the tramway routes. These two items amount to 17d. per car mile, while the omnibuses contribute only indirectly to local expenditure through the vehicle tax, which is equal to about 7d. per omnibus mile.

The London County Council point out that besides contributing to local rates, the tramways relieve Local Authorities of an average annual expenditure of £300,000 for road maintenance. They make this further comparison :

"With respect to the upkeep of roadways, it should be pointed out that, as the tramcars run on fixed rails, the tramway traffic entails no wear at all of the ordinary carriageway paving (a minimum width of about 15 feet in the case of double tracks), which the Council keeps in repair solely for the use of ordinary wheeled traffic, motor omnibus and other. The omnibuses pay no rates for the use of the roads, they pay no share of the cost of street widenings, although in some cases, without the improvements which have been carried out, partly at the expense of the tramways account, consisting of the formation of new and the widening of existing streets, and, in some cases, the strengthening and increasing of the headway of bridges, it would not have been possible for certain of the present omnibus services to be maintained."

103. We make these references to the rival means of locomotion using the streets because they affect the whole future of London traffic. There are engineering and traffic experts who think that tramways have seen their best days and that the future belongs to the omnibus. It may be said that tramways have become static, have reached as vehicles their final development, while the motor omnibus is still in an evolutionary stage. Tramways are rigid: omnibuses are elastic. Tramways have a right of way over other traffic; the rails are troublesome for other traffic and a cause of accidents. Passengers are inconvenienced by having to cross part of the street to and from the cars, whereas the omnibus pulls up at the kerb. Accidents are caused in London by vehicles passing the near side of stationary cars. The stoppage of one car interrupts the whole service on the route. Cars are noisy. Omnibuses are getting steadily less noisy, and every year an improvement in carrying capacity and in comfort to passengers several improved types of omnibuses have followed each other within the last two years. The main tramway routes in London come to dead ends because the streets in Central London and a large section of the West End are barred to them. Unlike the tramways of many other cities, they are excluded from narrow streets and the busiest thoroughfares of the centre of the town. Under no conditions in the future are they likely to be allowed to penetrate into these forbidden territories.

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104. In other cities the tramway system is fed by omnibuses. Parliament has refused to allow the London tramways to have such feeders. With this encouragement from Parliament and by the special facility which the motor omnibus has for linking

up, gathering traffic from outlying streets, expanding new services, and transferring vehicles to meet temporary excess of traffic, the motor omnibus looks at present as if it were likely to become the predominant partner in city street traffic.

105. The tramways have one advantage-an important one in the interests of the public: they are better able to meet the rush-hour traffic. During the morning and afternoon busy periods the services of London County Council tramways are increased by 50 per cent., and on certain routes omnibuses could not handle this rush traffic so efficiently, even if they filled the street with a continuous string of vehicles. The omnibuses are less commodious than the cars and have not the right of way they do not attempt to meet the rush-hour traffic to the same extent, nor to provide cheap travelling facilities for workmen.

106. These observations on the relative merits of tramways and omnibuses are subject to qualifications. The railless trolley car may presently be permitted in the Metropolis for suburban traffic, and has special advantages, and the possibility of future improvements in tramways cannot be excluded. The omnibus will not be equal to handling the peak traffic load until its carrying capacity is equal to that of the tramcar. Running cost is a factor which must be considered in the future of the rival systems. At present electric power is much cheaper than petrol. Electricity is likely to be even cheaper in the future, but the price of petrol is influenced by world organisations which no Government can control. The relative capital expenditure and comparative cost of maintenance must also be taken into account.

107. The competition between the tramways and the omnibuses increases congestion where it exists, and in other ways brings it home to the people that these two services should be used not in rivalry but in co-operation, the one being the complement of the other. At present one tramway service is separated from another at the boundary of the county of London by a few yards, thus breaking the journey. Transfers in continuous journeys are inconvenient and would be reduced to a minimum if tramways and omnibuses were run in co-ordination.

Proposals for dealing with Traffic Difficulties.

108. The problem which we must now consider is how this co-operation, together with co-ordination between these two services, can best be brought about in the interest of the travelling public. If to this can be added co-operation with the tubes and electric railways, an important step will have been taken in the direction of a complete unification in the organisation of traffic in Greater London.

109. Three suggestions have been put very briefly before us :1. Sir Henry Maybury, on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, has proposed an enlarged Committee of the Ministry of Transport, with statutory powers.