Evening star., 1926-04-14
ROADS RECOGNIZE
| VALUE OF BUSES
Motor Vehicle Investment
/ Placed Above Entire
W, Railroad System.
BY j. C. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


NEW YORK, April 14.--Motor bus
production and sales are running from
20 to % per cent ahead Of the cor
responding period of 1926. The bus
and truck output this year is counted
on to exceed that for any previous
year. New routes are being estab-
lished constantly.
Local travel TO a very large extent
is leaving the railway train for the
automobile, but President Ralph Budd
of the Great Northern Railway SAID
at Kansas City that bus and truck
industries were providing more trafnc
for the railroads of the country tnan
they took away from them.
1t is becoming increasingly eVldent
that far sighted railroad executives
are taking over the truck and the
bus, rather than trying to eliminate
or fight them. Carl r. Gray presi'
dent of the Union Pacific Raiiroao'
said:
Both water transport and motor
transport have their proper pace anu
TO oppose either. when they are cieas-
lv demonstrated to have these ao'
yantapes is 10 run counter TO natu-
raj law. Up to this time most OF tnc
having has been done on highways
which parallel railway mileage. 1ne
highway improvements Will teno To-
ward lateral rather than parallei iihes
and can conceivably become feeoers'
not competitors, of rail carriers.
Exceeds Rail Investment.
Mr.. Budd. whose road operates two
81 600 600 motor bus systems, oe-
clares the investment in motor We
hicles and improved highways now eA
ceeds the investment IN the railr roau
system of the country. he places tne
latter at S25. 1000. 100000 and the lot
mer, at S25. .625 100000.
'.The extensive ownership or auto
mobiles" he added. 'and the large
mileage of improved highways nave
resulted in the loss of most OF the local
Messenger business except IN the NlclH
itv Of the large cities. The removal OF
these trains has left many commuN1-
ties with comparatively little railway
passenger service. The small amount
of local travel may not warrant more
rail service. but does warrant Dus
operation at frequent intervals. ne
station to station and even snoi itel
haul passengers make up consider
able part of the bus traffic.
''The bus business promises 70 IN
crease if better service can De given
and operating costs reduced. busses
may supplement railway transports
lion in some localities more ettectlEely
if managed by the railways than II
operated independently. Motor trucks
relieve terminal congestion and the
terminal coast raised by conges-
lion frequently absorb all profit
of rail haul on loca! frelght;
The field of the privately owned
truck is wide. much more SO thah
the common carrier truck.
Relief for Railroad.
Marcus L. Bell, vice president of
the Rock Island System, also stresses
this angle of the situation.
For short haul traffic and con-
venient delivery" he said, "the motor
truck can offer the road carrier some
thing that will relieve the latter OF a
very burdensome and expensive PROB
lem. I mean the terminal service.
The real difference between rail and
motor transportation. according to
Vice President Lee of the Pennsyl.
vania, is that between wholesale ana
retail.
such profits as the railroads are
able to make" he said, "come prac-
tically from mass transport of freight
and passengers over considerable dis
tances. On the other hand, those
forms of transportation in which the
trucks can and do make money are
almost invariably the strictly retail
forms in the rendering of which rail-
road operation practically always in
wolves losses"
One of the rail carriers most ac-
lively engaged in short-haul and COM
muter passenger transportation is lay
ing out bus lines.
Furnish an adequate passenger
service in connection with rail lines,
said Arthur p. Russell, vice president
of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford road, 'and give the public
that form of service they seem to de-
mand."