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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 7 (November 1, 1928)

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From time to time we hear lurid accounts of journeys which have been made over long distances by motor coach—say, between London and the South Coast—while we have also had details of travellers who, having successfully negotiated the outward journey, were unable to return home by road at all, although they had paid for a return ticket (says “Modern Transport”). Quite an adventurous journey—the details of which can be vouched for—was made by road between Liverpool and London within the past few days. The travellers concerned had booked their seats well in advance (at least a fortnight) and duly arrived on the morning of the departure at the spot on the pavement whence the coach was advertised to depart. For an hour or so after the reputed departure time they sat forlornly on their luggage on the kerbstone watching buses depart—some of them for London. To make matters worse they were firmly and none too courteously informed that they, and others with them, had not booked by that particular coach; though what there was to distinguish one coach from another they were unable to discover. Eventually, the irate passengers became thoroughly desperate, whereupon they were informed that the operating company had no more coaches, but would try to borrow one. In time a coach was borrowed which, after wandering around Liverpool and unloading certain passengers who wanted to go to Blackpool, started out in the direction of London, hotly pursued by a taxicab filled with passengers who had been left behind; for a hackney carriage inspector had boarded the vehicle and discovered overloading! The driver had never driven a coach to London, and did not know the way; but a very fat Lancashire man, who was armed with a loaf and a jar of pickles for his own and his fellow-passengers delight, kindly stepped out of the coach at intervals in order to inquire the way. Ultimately, they reached London long after dark—when they immediately lost their way. However, the fat man from Lancashire solved the problem, for he knocked at scores of doors and rang at innumerable bells until a way out of the maze was discovered. This kind of road travel will certainly not do.