The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
The Metropolitan Omnibus Traffic greater in the Number of Passengers than the Metropolitan Railway Traffic.
Even the railway traffic connected with the metropolis, immense as it is, is less, in the number of its passengers, than the metropolitan omnibus traffic, according to the same authority. For at a subsequent "numerously attended meeting of the Committee, Directors, and Shareholders of the City Terminus Company, held [on ] for the purpose of hearing the Directors' 'Report on the present position and aspect of the affairs of the Company, and of considering what further steps should be taken under present circumstances,'- , Sheriff of London and Middlesex, in the chair," - is reported in the of Dec. 30, to have said: " He had ascertained the fact, that 200,000 people came into and went out of London every day by the present railways." And in the of the same day, at an inquest on a fatal railway accident at, is reported to have given evidence to the effect, that "the North- Western Company ran 300 trains per day." Now 200,000 people daily coming in and out by all the metropolitan railways, when multiplied by 365, gives an annual number of 73,000,000 travellers by the metropolitan railways, which is less than one-half of the 156,000,000 annual passengers by the metropolitan omnibuses; while with 300 trains a-day by the greatest of the metropolitan railways, 12,000 omnibus journeys through the main streets alone, or 450,000 passengers in general, will sustain a comparison. The recent introduction of penny omnibuses, and the still more general admission among omnibus proprietors of the prin- ciple of railway traffic for the masses (acted on, however, | |
211 | on rails chiefly by Parliamentary trains, run but once a-day, and at the most inconvenient hours which can be selected), by carrying passengers at the rate of 1d. a mile, are likely far more extensively to develop the capabilities of omnibus traffic. The recent reduction of omnibus fares and the removal of the metropolitan toll-gates are said to have much benefited the omnibus trade. But fine seasons are more profitable to omnibuses than rainy ones, as so few ladies leave home in bad weather. |