Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-02
RAPID TRANSIT SURE
For the People of Allegheny, Who
Will Soon Ride Electrically.
PRESIDENT M'CREERY BACK AGAIN
With News Of Magnificent Transformation
of the Pleasant Valley Line.
ALL TO TAKE PLACE BEFORE WINTER

Tempus pecunia est, and though rich
men may ride in chaises poor men refuse to
go afoot by-a long chalk nowadays, and
they must ride rapidly. Among savages
the tribes that have reduced the horse to SUBJ
lection are conquerors; but the noble ami
malls powers are not equal to the strain the
demands of high-pressure life impose. The
horse must go-as street car motor-and
if he could reason he would say HAmen."
The Pleasant Valley Street Railway Com
pany has decided to dispense with its horses
and use electric power. A committee, of
which Mr.. William McCreery was one, has
spent considerable portion of the past
winter examining all sorts of appliances for
the moving of street railway cars. The
committee investigated everything of this
kind that could be found between the East
ern limits of Boston and the Western limits
of Davenport, and then came back to
Cleveland and extended the search from
there to Richmond, Va. The result was a
decision in favor of an electric motor.
Mr.. McCreery, who has just returned,
said: at was plain to us that the cable
crooked, and there is too much bridge on
the line to allow it to be proftably en-
ployed, and we
MUST HAVE RAPID TRANSIT.
'The public demands it, and, since the
cable roads have been in operation, here
and elsewhere, people generally have un-
mistakably expressed desire for more rapid
travel Our patrons are asking for, and
must have it, as soon as it can be provided,
1.-THE committee was satisfied, with what
it was able to learn, that the electric system
would give as much speed as was compati-
BILE with safety.
''In addition to increased speed we can
haul longer cars, and, when necessary, can
haul two cars as well as one, and in the even
ings, from to o'clock, can accommodate
all our patrons and can secure much short
distance custom that now prefers to walk to
being crowded as it must be when horse
power is used. During these hours we could
fill car every minute, as anyone about the
postofice knows; but, with horses, we can
only run a car every 21I minutes, and then
the cars are so crowded that many people
going only short distance prefer walking.
With electric power one can carry all with
out crowdIng, though of course some might
still be forced to stand.
Then at the time the anus ement houses
dismiss their patrons we can group the cars
so as to fill the line-make procession of
cars. There will be no horses to maintain
and the cost of men to handle the cars will
be all that is necessary. People complain
that adequate facilities are not provided at a
late hour, but they do not understand that
they are not possible. To do so would re-
ouire an immense force of men and horses
for single trip and the cost would largely
exceed the profit, as men would of course
demand full days pay for the work of an
hour or two.
EXPENSIVE AND ELEGANT.
1.-THE plant will be very expensive. The
tracks we now use must be replaced bY rails
nearly twice as heavy, and the cost of power
houses, etc., will be very great; but we ex-
pect to make it pay from increased travel,
and to have one of the best roads on EARTH
''We intend to heat and ventilate our cars
and make travelling on them a pleasure.
We expect to haul our people from the
Pittsburg postoffice to the head of Pleasant
Valley, a distance of three miles, in IS
minutes, a speed of ten miles an hour, and
we are assured that the increased travel
will Justify the expenditure.
"We propose TO have the new road in
operation before cold weather"
A suggestion here presents itself, and that
is that rapid transit in the Pleasant Valley
line will soon force it on the other Allie
ghenv lines. The Pleasant Valley road
will attract by its quick work the people
of considerable portion of the Northside,
now drained bv the P. A. & NJ. and the
Troy Hill lines, and their proprietors will be
compelled to hold that trade to compete in
the matter of time, as a person will walk
several squares out of his road in order to
be carried rapidly to his destination, espec-
tally when he can thereby go home for din
ner and get back to his work within an
hour 1t is probable that within a few
years horses will be used only on lines that
are secure from competition, and they are
few.
The West End and CHARTERS road is now
competing with the Pittsburg and Lake
Erie Railway, that runs cars at short inter-
Tals, and with the boat line which plies the
greater part of the year, and even that COM
pany may find rapid transit an indispensa-
bility to the holding of trade.