The route of the Nelsons is from Charing-cross, over Westminster-bridge, and by the New and Old Kent-roads to Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich; some go from Gracechurch-street, over London-bridge.
The Shoreditches pursue the direction of Chelsea, Piccadilly, the Strand, &c. to Shoreditch, their starting-place being Battersea-bridge.
The Hackneys and Claptons run from Oxford-street to Clapton-square.
Barber’s run from the Bank, and some from Oxford-street, to Clapton.
The Blackwalls run some from Sloane-street to the Docks, and the Bow and Stratfords from different parts of the West-end to their respective destinations.
I have enumerated these several conveyances from the information of persons connected with the trade, using the terms they used, which better distinguish the respective routes than the names lettered on the carriages, which would but puzzle the reader, the principal appellation giving no intimation of the destination of the omnibus.
The routes above specified are pursued by a series of vehicles belonging to one company or to one firm, or one individual, the number of their vehicles varying from twelve to fifty. One omnibus, however, continues to run from the Bank to Finchley, and one from the Angel to Hampton Court.
The total number of omnibuses traversing the streets of London is about 3000, paying duty including mileage, averaging 9l. per month each, or 324,000l. per annum. The number of conductors and drivers is about 7000 (including a thousand “odd men,”—a term that will be explained hereafter), paying annually 5s. each for their licenses, or 1750l. collectively. The receipts of each vehicle vary from 2l. to 4l. per day. Estimating the whole 3000 at 3l., it follows that the entire sum expended annually in omnibus hire by the people of London amounts to no less than 3,285,000l., which is more than 30s. a-head for every man, woman, and child, in the metropolis. The average journey as regards length of each omnibus is six miles, and that distance is in some cases travelled twelve times a-day by each omnibus, or, as it is called, “six there and six back.” Some perform the journey only ten times a-day (each omnibus), and some, but a minority, a less number of times. Now taking the average as between forty-five and fifty miles a-day, travelled by each omnibus, and that I am assured on the best authority is within the mark, while sixty miles a-day might exceed it, and computing the omnibuses running daily at 3000, we find “a travel,” as it was worded to me, upwards of 140,000 miles a-day, or a yearly travel of more than 50,000,000 of miles: an extent that almost defies a parallel among any distances popularly familiar. And that this estimate in no way exceeds the truth is proved by the sum annually paid to the Excise for “mileage,” which, as before stated, amounts on an average to 9l. each “bus,” per month, or, collectively, to 324,000l. per annum, and this at 1½d. per mile (the rate of duty charged) gives 51,840,000 miles as the distance travelled by the entire number of omnibuses every year.
On each of its journeys experienced persons have assured me an omnibus carries on the average fifteen persons. Nearly all are licensed to carry twenty-two (thirteen inside and nine out), and that number perhaps is sometimes exceeded, while fifteen is a fair computation; for as every omnibus has now the two fares, 3d. and 6d., or, as the busmen call them, “long uns and short uns,” there are two sets of passengers, and the number of fifteen through the whole distance on each journey of the omnibus is, as I have said, a fair computation: for sometimes the vehicle is almost empty, as a set-off to its being crammed at other times. This computation shows the daily “travel,” reckoning ten journeys a-day, of 450,000 passengers. Thus we might be led to believe that about one-fourth the entire population of the metropolis and its suburbs, men, women, and children, the inmates of hospitals, gaols, and workhouses, paupers, peers, and their families all included, were daily travelling in omnibuses. But it must be borne in mind, that as most omnibus travellers use that convenient mode of conveyance at least twice a-day, we may compute the number of individuals at 225,000, or, allowing three journeys as an average daily travel, at 150,000. Calculating the payment of each passenger at 4½d., and so allowing for the set-off of the “short uns” to the “long uns,” we have a daily receipt for omnibus fares of 8,439l., a weekly receipt of 58,073l., and a yearly receipt of 2,903,650l.; which it will be seen is several thousands less than the former estimate: so that it may be safely assured, that at least three millions of money is annually expended on omnibus fares in London.
The extent of individual travel performed by some of the omnibus drivers is enormous. One man told me that he had driven his “bus” seventy-two miles (twelve stages of six miles) every day for six years, with the exception of twelve miles less every second Sunday, so that this man had driven in six years 179,568 miles.