Road versus Rail 1914 style

Road v. rail...

Will motor vehicles ever supplant train travel?

The following prophetic ponderings come from The Hucknall Dispatch newspaper of 10th December 1914:-

"It looks as though the day is not far distant when the country will be covered with motor omnibusus and motor char-a-banc.  A few years ago it was a novelty to see one of these vehicles in our streets, but a day never passes without several being seen in the thoroughfares.

" Early the other morning two citizens stood speculatively regarding a huge motor char-a-banc which stood in the street, and young as the day was it had evidently travelled some distance; it had obvious and magnificent power, and its capacity would be for no fewer than forty people.

"After a while people will forsake the iron rail and take to this new, pleasant mode of traction"

"More of this type of vehicle have come into town this summer than ever before, and wherever you go you see them in plenty - in the large towns you come across them from all parts of the country, gliding smoothly and quickly along giving little indication of the weight they carry.  All things considered, you can travel nearly as quickly by road as by rail to any point, unless by rail you strike an express and no changes.

"One of the onlookers pointed to the sout wheels and the capacious body, and opined that after a while people will forsake the iron rail and take to this new, pleasant mode of traction.  He might be right - he is a man of foresight and shrewdness, fulfilling an important public position.

"Some of us will think it absurd to suppose that the railway train will ever be supplanted, but then we cannot see where the method of traction is going to have much opportunity for further development, unless the anticipations of advocates of levitation are realised...."