A MOTOR-OMNIBUS GUIDE.*
Tun appearance of a little book labelled T.B.B., for Travel by Road, thrills one much as the first Bradshaw of 1841 must have thrilled our grandfathe s. For this book, as Lord Montagu of Beaulieu explains in a preface, is a first attempt "to give concise and accurate information of the various road routes, now thousands in number, which radiate from nearly every populous centre." Each reader knows how in his own district motor-omnibuses or chars.bancs have increased in number, especially since the Armistice, but most people will be surprised to find from this authentic guide and its invaluable map how universal this new movement has been. The miners' strike, in causing a reduction of the train services, has compelled many travellers to resort to the roads, and has drawn attention to the fact that one can travel by a public motor conveyance from London to the coast. But the development of travel by road
quite independent of the miners' vagaries and would be just as great if the railway services were normal. The motor- omnibus has proved itself a cheap, speedy, trustworthy, and
• The Travel by Road Motor Omnibus Guide and Charabane Directory of England mid Wales. With a Preface by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. No. 1, June. 1921. leaden: Men. Wiley, end Co. [le. net monthly.]
flexible method of transport, and therefore it has become increasingly popular. For short distances it has outrivalled the railway on parallel routes ; for long distances it will be a very serious competitor of the train. Lord Montagu declares that motor road-transport is only in its initial stages. Its rapid and almost unseen growth during the past few years is an index to its potentialities in the near future.
The little book gives particulars of many hundreds of regular motor-omnibus services, numbered in order, with an index and a large map. The map is instructive and entertaining. Many a reader, we are sure, will take imaginary journeys on this map and try to find the greatest distance which he can travel without entering a railway-station. On the long-distance mutes, of course, the traveller must change vehicles at several points, but with careful study of the map and the guide one may reduce the number of changes to a minimum. Let us illustrate the present situation with a few examples. The English place most distant from London which can be reached by public road conveyance is apparently Garstang, north of Preston. The route lies through Reading, Oxford, Banbury, Stratford-on-Avon, Birmingham, Walsall, the Potteries, Macclesfield, Stockport, thence by tram through Manchester to Bolton, and on by motor. omnibus through Chorley and _Preston to Garstang. Going by the same route, one can branch off north-eastwards at Birmingham and go through Tamworth to Derby, thence by Alfreton and Chesterfield to Sheffield and on by tram and omnibus to Barnsley, and thence to Castleford or Knottingley. There is no direct road connexion with Leeds in this direction, but Leeds can be reached from Manchester by a circuitous route through Todmorden and Halifax ; trams run nearly all the way, except for the short stretch -over the Pennine and a walk of a quarter of a mile from the omnibus terminus at Mytholm to the tram terminus at Hebden Bridge—a gap which perhaps disqualifies the route. From Birmingham, again, one can reach Liverpool by road, turning west from the Potteries through Crewe, Nantwich, and Chester. From Chester one can travel by motor-omnibus to Flint and Parkgate, to Hawarden and Mold, or to Wrexham, Chirk, Oswestry, and Four Crosses. A short walk eastwards from Four Crosses brings one to Crew Green, the terminus of an omnibus starting from Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury one can return by way of Wolverhampton to Birmingham. From that city, too, one can go by road to Worcester, Ledbury, Ross, Monmouth, and thence westward to Abergavenny and Brecon. Birmingham is connected also with Bristol and Weston-super-Mare, and with Taun ton, Yeovil, and Bridport. From these West Country towns one can return to London either by Salisbury and Reading, or by Salisbury, Basingstoke, and Aldershot, or by Christchurch and Southampton and thence by various routes. All the south-eastern watering places are now connected with London by motor-omnibus. So, too, are the Essex resorts, and also Felixstowe.
The publication of the guide shows not only the complexity which the system has already attained, but also its defects. One sees in a glance at the map where the connexions are wanting. Thus Cambridge sends out omnibuses in six directions, but it is not yet to be reached by road from London. There is a gap between Baldock and Royston, for instance, and another between Bishop's Stortford and Saffron Walden. Again, one can travel through Suffolk from Ipswich northward to Dies, or to Saxmundham, but beyond these places there are blanks on the Norwich and Yarmouth roads. Lincolnshire and the greater part of Yorkshire know little about the motor-omnibus. Durham and the neighbourhood of Newcastle are well served, but the rest of the North is a blank, save for the familiar route in the Lakes and a West Cumberland coast route. Again, it one goes westward, one must stop at Wiveliscombe or Wellington beyond Taunton, or at Axminster on the Dorset coast route. Devon has a good service, radiating from Exeter, but it is cut off from the rest of the country and is incomplete, partly no doubt because Dartmoor intervenes. Similarly, in Cornwall there are only a few isolated services, for the country is difficult and the population sparse. But this is only a passing phase. The tabulation of the services and their representation on the map will quickly lead to the bridging of the gaps. Thus on the direct route to Leicester from London the motor-omnibus it missing only on the short stretch from Desborough beyond Kettering to Market Harborough. Between Northampton and Birmingham, again, there is a short gap south-east of Rugby. Between Monmouth and Cardiff there is no service from Raglan to Usk. As long-distance road travel becomes more and more
popular, these and other deficiencies will soon be made good, and more direct routes will be adopted. The prospect is not without its disadvantages. Our present roads were not designed for heavy motor- traffio, and many of them are neither wide enough nor solid enough to bear a great increase of road transport. But we cannot now discuss this question. It must be faced in a practical and businesslike manner, for the roads are becoming once more the highways of passenger and goods traffic, while the railways have lost their monopoly.
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