Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-22
THE GRADE CROSSINGS.

THE GRAD CROSSINGS.
 The estimates submitted to the senate yesterday by the railroad commissioners show. as nearly as can be approximated by those most competent to judge, the enormous expense that will be involved in removing the twelve hundred grade crossings in this state They also serve to show the injustice of the bill that passed the house last week. and which would place an almost fatal burden on every road in the state. It is to be hoped certainly, for the benefit of all interests concerned, that compromise may be reached whereby the enormous cost of twenty million dollars will not be thrown entirely on the railroads.
 By the provisions of the bill as it pass ed the house, and as it now lies before the senate, the entire expense shall be paid by the company operating said rail road which expense shall include suitable reward to the owners of the land in the vicinity of said crossing for any damages which may be occasioned to it by the changes ordered" It is this clause that is most objectionable in the bill and that makes it the most powerful lever of injustice l ever invented or sanctioned by a Con- necti cut legislature. There is no doubt, | and we believe the railroads themselves l admit, that the principal part of the ex- pense of removing grade crossings should l | Al> Il t1. consequential damages suffered by ad- | joining land owners upon the roads would entail an illinvetable additional expense and would submit the railroads to practically interminable series of lawsuits and legislation. So utterly ex- pansive field of expense is provided by this loophole for consequential damages that the railroad commissioners did not believe themselves equal to the task of making an estimate on that point If the bill should go through the senate in the shape it passed the house we hardly think that railroad stocks in Connecticut would be a very profitable form of investment for many | to SSItS. LLotCSIttiN "ouili lLIS Dt the case with regard to the smaller roads. Take the Meriden road for instance, which at best is yet but an experimental investment for its stockholders. The estimated expense of removing the grade crossings on this short road is S216, 300. and this be it remembered entirely apart from any consideration of consequential damages to adjoining land proprietors. On the Naugatuck division of the Con- solidated the expense is estimated to be S660. GOO. which seems small enough when we take into consideration the great expense and the amount of conse- quential injury that would be involved. for instance. in the removal of the Bank street crossing in this city and the cross ing at Derby and Birmingham.
 It seems to us that the bill passed by the house could have no other effect than to seriously embarrass or possibly permanently bankrupt the smaller roads. 1 Does anyone doubt the inevitable result of such embarrassment or bankruptcy The smaller roads would be gathered into the net of the great systems that have our state already gridironed, thus enabling them to control the entire rail road business of the state and so event ually putting on the people themselves. by rates of travel and freightage, the ex- pense of the work. This is matter that should be seriously taken into ac- count by the senators before they give their assent to the bill as it passed the | house.
 We believe the bill as now constructed cannot be other than injurious. It is entirely unjust to the railroads, especi- ally in making them bear the burden of removing grade crossings for which they are in no manner responsible and put ting upon them the burden of conse- 1 quential damages the amount of which no man can now estimate. We would not have the railroads enjoy any distinc- lively special privileges in a state whose legislation has been particularly kind to them, but we would deprecate any act of injustice to interests that are so largely identified with the progress and pros perity of Connecticut. And the present grade crossings bill is an act of intoler- able injustice. and one which, if not re- adjusted by the senate, will do an in- jury to vast interests in the state that must be felt far beyond the immediate circle where it now seems likely to fall 100 Ladies Wanted
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