Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-17
Reduction of Fare.

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We have some suggestions to make In
regard to q feature of our city improve
ments, which while made in all kindness
and with due reference to the interests ard
experience of parties interested, are at the
same time made with the utmost sincerity
and in the firm conviction that they will
commend themselves to the consideration
of the people of the entire community.
The suggestions which we venture we be-
lieve to be to the pecuniary interest and to
the aggregated advantages of all parties,
both owners, managers and patrons. Our
remarks refer to the Street Railroads of the
city.
No class of improvements of a public
character, especially wherein the import
ance of conveyance is concerned, more
thoroughly commends itself to the entire
masses or more completely depends upon
the entire masses for prosperity and profit
than does that of Street Railroads, and
none should, therefore, more readily adapt
its purposes to their wants and necessities.
Cheap travel, cheap transportation and
cheap conveyance are the chief consldera-
tons now occupying the attention OF all
railroad lines and transportation compa-
MES of the country, and investigation
shows that those lines and those roads run
ming through populous countries and d.
verging from and converging to flourish
ing commercial cities, which have reduced
their fares the lowest, are reaping the
largest and most substantial harvests of
pecuniary profit and enjoying the highest
degree of popular favor.
The same considerations are equally APP
plicable to Street Railroads. Really they
apply moreforcibly and affect more immedi-
ately the interests of the Street Railroads
than highway carriers, because the moving
aggregated masses of the city are more
directly concerned
There is no city of any sort of metro
politan pretensions, or aspirations which
has Street Railroads, where higher fare
than FIVE cent 10 charged for car ride.
In New York you can from almost the re-
mote parts of the city, penetrate to its
center or return for this amount. In Gin
cinnati you can go from Main street to
The out skirts, or return for the same, and
in Louisville, from the Louisville Hotel to
Portland, from the Louisville and Nashville
depot to the steamboat landing or from
anv of the hotels to the various retreats IN
| the suburbs, five cents is the charge.
| The consequence is the cars are always
crammed, and there is no better paying
stock than the City Railroad Stock.
In New Orleans you can go from the
Stock Landing to the glittering prospect
on Canal street, or from any of the hotels
away down toward Lake Pontchartrain, or
out on jackson avenue for the same little
sum. AS result, the cars are always full,
and, although, the Crescent City, as shown
| by statistics, has more miles of street
railway than any city on the continent, the
stock in the same is among the best paying
in the country. These facts speak for
| themselves. We have here in Nash
vile as good street railroad tracks,
as careful drivers, and as high-spirited
meiseontrolling the same as there are any
| where. Knowing this fact, and knowing
| also that these roads should be a feature in
| which all should feel and haze an interest,
as hour after hour we see large street cars
| numbering almost empty through the
streets, we can but ask ourselt the ques-
! ton why they are thus empty when hun
| dreds of persons are walking, often through
| bad weather, too, in the same direction.
|
itself upon us, that is the charges are too
high.
| Persons who make two trips day on the
cars at ten cents each, spend in the year
| the sum of seventy three dollars; if he
make one trip at the same fare it is thirty
six dollars and fifty cents. Reduce the
fare one half, bring it down to five cents,
and sell a package of twenty-five tickets
for one dollar, and the cars would
always be filed. The clerk, the
laboring nan, the market woman, the
school children, and indeed everybody
would patronize the street cars. Last win
ter and spring the street cars in Galveston
| charged ten cents. The stock was down
| twenty-five cents on the dollar, and the
cars went cumbrously along the beautiful
! and level street with no passengers. BY
persistent energy on the part of the public
| press the fare was reduced to five cents, as
an experiment for one month. In two
DAYS the cars were thronged. Everybody,
men, women and children poured to the
| beach. to the coast and to the Point, on the
street cars, and before the month
was past the number of cars and teams
had to be doubled, and the stock
in the railroads bounced to forty cents
| It worked like charm. 1t proved highly
| profitable to the roads and conferred vast
| benefits upon hundreds who before were
| utterly Indifferent to the Street Railroads.
| It is needless to say the reduction was
never changed. Now, if those (and they
are liberal public spirited mem having our
city railroads in charge, would pursue the
same course, we venture to affirm that they
would see the same gratifying results. W.
hope they will take these suggestions into
kind and candid consideration, and al
| least try the experiment.