New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-03-23
CITY RAILROADS.

The City of New York has not less than one
million of inhabitants. Of these by far the larger
proportion reside on the upper end Of the Island,
from one to six miles distant from their places
Of business. Some other method OF transporta-
ton than their own legs afford Thorn is, there
fore, imperativoly demanded daily by some hum
dreds of thousands Of people. No better way
has yet been discovered than that afforded by
se-railroads. On this point we believe
everybody is agreed. But few of the ever pass
ing throng can, or will, 60 a-fOot; fewer still
can ride in their own carriages; the omnibus is
the remainder Of past civilization, numbering,
incOmmOdOus, diSagreeable and slow. We fall
back upon the street cars as al absolute neces-
sity.
But street railroads should be built, frat, only
where the public convenience requires them;
secondly, their proprietors should be compelled
TO manage them for the public accommodation,
and not solely for private emolument; and
thirdly, the privilege Of running them should
bring an income to the City. If these three
points are secured in the charters, the roads
will be a blessing TO the people, aud not, as
some of them now are, partly convenience
and partly or wholly nuisance.
The west side of tho town is better provided
with these roads than the east, and therefore
it is that the complaints Of the Fourth avenue
and Third avenue cars are louder than those Of
other roads; and therefore il is also that petit
ton for the Lexington avenue road has been
presented TO the Legislature signed by twenty
eight thousand citizens. The people who need
it reside in a section Of the city which they can
only reach by roads wanting the capacity to
carry the passengers demanding transportation.
They ask not merely for accommodation but for
relief, and they believe that tho proposed road,
running from Fulton Ferry to Reade street,
thence up Elm and Crosby streets TO
Lafayette Place, thence up the Fourth
avenue to Lexington ayenue, and up that
avenue to Sixty-sixth street. will afford
them what they want, and they are urqueStion-
ably right. The corporatorS of the road are
citizens OF New-York, wel-known and respon-
sible men; they propose, by thor charter, to
pay an annual tax TO the city Of one hundred
dollars a car, and they promise-as il will GER
tainly be for their interest in competition with
the parallel roads-to furnish roomy and we'll
ventilated cars of the newest construction, and
to provide every passenger they carry with o
comfortable seat If these provisions are com.
piled with-and they can, and ought TO be in
sured By the act of incorporation-the constant
stream OF travel, up ard down the length Of the
island, will find new outlet. The route pro-
posed is the most feasible one nov remaining
a9a ag fsS fsPR Al ths 9tSg. s s
doubt that, sooner or later, ii will be opened, and
there il no good reason Why cars should
not be running on it in two months rs well as
two years, or a year, hence. II any objections
are urged against it at Albany they must come,
not from the people but from interested parties,
who hope by defeating the project now, to seize it,
by and BY, for their own benefit. But the present
projectors propose Of their own accoun. to re-
munerats the city fairly for the franchise &C.
corded them; they propose to consult, in it, Use,
the accommodation Of the public, and whether
they do or not it * easy TO attach such condi-
tons to the grant as shall compel them 70 do so
and such being the fact, and the road being clear
ly needed for the relief and benefit of the public,
We trust the charter will be granted at once and
the work Immediately begun. The Committee
on Railroads have reported favorably, and it is
to be hoped that the Legislature, in acting upon
the Bill, will consider the interests Of the city, |
and turn their backs upon the lobby