He had at first to take about
a thousand horses off the road, with thirty-seven vehicles,
travelling 2446 miles daily. But he remodelled his system so as
to run his cars between the railway-stations and the towns to the
right and left of the main lines.
He also directed his attention to those parts of Ireland which
had not before had the benefit of his conveyances. And in thus
still continuing to accommodate the public, the number of his
horses and carriages again increased, until, in 1861, he was
employing 900 horses, travelling over 4000 miles daily; and in
1866, when he resigned his business, he was running only 684
miles daily below the maximum run in 1845, before the railways
had begun to interfere with his traffic.
His cars were then running to Dungarvan, Waterford, and Wexford
in the south-west of Ireland; to Bandon, Rosscarbery, Skibbereen,
and Cahirciveen, in the south; to Tralee, Galway, Clifden,
Westport, and Belmullet in the west; to Sligo, Enniskillen,
Strabane, and Letterkenny in the north; while, in the centre of
Ireland, the towns of Thurles, Kilkenny, Birr, and Ballinasloe
were also daily served by the cars of Bianconi.
At the meeting of the British Association, held in Dublin in
1857, Mr. Bianconi mentioned a fact which, he thought,
illustrated the increasing prosperity of the country and the
progress of the people. It was, that although the population had
so considerably decreased by emigration and other causes, the
proportion of travellers by his conveyances continued to
increase, demonstrating not only that the people had more money,
but that they appreciated the money value of time, and also the
advantages of the car system established for their accommodation.
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