Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Corinne Mulley
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
The twentieth century brought the development of passenger travel using motorised vehicles and in particular, the mobility of the masses brought about by the advent of the motor bus. In the UK, this industry blossomed at the end of the First World War when the cheap lorries used in the war were bought by demobbed soldiers who converted them for passenger use. Such vehicles were popularly known as charabancs. Whilst the role of the bus in everyday travel is well documented, its parallel role in the leisure time market is largely unexplored. In this paper, the question of what constituted an excursion or tour is based on the legal identification introduced by the 1930 Road Traffic Act. This identified an excursion or tour as a service run on an irregular basis but carrying passengers at separate fares above a minimum level. They were distinguished from contract services where a separate fare was not charged to each passenger and from express services where a separate fare (above the minimum) was charged but the service was operated to a regular timetable. However, in practice, the distinction is more blurred since some contract services may well have been excursions but booked by a single entity who collected the separate fares from the passengers in advance. This paper is concerned with the development of excursions and tours by motor vehicles, called coaches, and the impact of this on mobility primarily. The 'hard' evidence comes from the 1930s when good records are available from the Reports of the Traffic Commissioners who administered the 1930 Road Traffic Act. This Act imposed on the road passenger carrying sector a system of regulatory control covering not only the safety of the vehicles in use but also the quantity of vehicles allowed in operation. The Traffic Commissioners, based in 13 Traffic Areas covering mainland Britain, reported annually on activity under their jurisdiction. An important appeal case, shortly after the 1930 Road Traffic Act became operational, led to amendments being made in Sections 24-25 of the Road Traffic Act to the definitions of a contract carriage: this meant that excursion and tours activities came under the control of the Traffic Commissioners and thus a well documented source of the development of this sector exist in the Traffic Commissioner's Reports.
Author(s): Mulley C, Newman T
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Unknown
Conference Name: T2M 3rd International Conference
Year of Conference: 2005
