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SUNDERLAND SPECIALS
| 题名： | SUNDERLAND SPECIALS |
| 正文语种： | eng |
| 摘要： | It is hard to imagine this happening today, but in the mid-1960s a small town municipal operator replaced half its fleet with vehicles built to its own bespoke design. The operator was Sunderland Corporation, which owned 180 vehicles, mostly double-deckers. Its general manager, Norman Morton, had come from the freight industry and was seeking new ideas. A visit to Copenhagen in 1965 opened his eyes to the possibility of a flat fare and self-service ticket machines in place of conductors. He ordered 90 standee single-deckers, mainly Leyland Panthers, but also Bristol RELLs, AEC Swifts and Daimler Roadliners. Their bodies, built by Strachans and Metro-Cammell Weymann, had American-style forward-sloping side windows. A flat fare of 4d (about 32p at today's prices) was collected in Bell Autoslot machines, using coins and pre-purchased tokens. The undertaking lost £197,000 - about £3.6million today - in the first year and raised the fare by 25% in August 1967. Morton resigned, and left the bus industry, after the council voted two months later to replace the flat fare with an unsubsidised zonal system. All that was about to unfold when Iain MacGregor visited Sunderland in June 1967, finding a service in transition with sleek Panthers and traditional halfcab double-deckers on the streets of the Wearside town. |
| 出版年： | 2022 |
| 期刊名称： | Buses |
| 卷： | 74 |
| 期： | 804 |
| 页码： | 60-60 |
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