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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 (June 1, 1928)

Feeder Services

Feeder Services.

All the European railways are making rapid strides in the building up of road services as feeders to the rail route. Probably the biggest success met with in this direction lies in the extensive railroad service operated in southern France by the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean line. As far back as 1909, the P.L.M. launched out with an ambitious road motor service in the French Alps, and to-day this railway operates more than 200 luxurious motor coaches in this area, each service being leased to a local road transportation undertaking under the direct control of the railway. Each coach has eleven or fourteen arm-chair seats, arranged page 21 across the vehicle in rows of three. The services include a long-distance run from Nice to Geneva occupying eight days; five local runs operated from Dijon and Avallon with journeys of as long as 103 miles; seven local sight-seeing tours from Vichy; and a cross-country run connecting Vichy with Grenoble, 249 miles distant.

During 1927 the more than 200 road services of the P.L.M. Railway of France covered a total route mileage of 6,338 miles. Something like 210,000 passengers were handled, and the motor coaches covered a total distance of 1,572,663 miles. In many instances the passengers conveyed by the road services were carried by rail in the first instance from Paris and other centres, so that the value of the road services as traffic developers may readily be realised.