Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-12
For All-Night Cars to the Suburbs at
Short Intervals on All Street
Railways in Both Cities
C. L. MAGEE FAVORS THE PLAN.
While There Might be Losses at Night, the
Increased Daylight Travel Would
Cover the Deficiency.
NIGHT TOILERS MUST BE CARED FOR
How Various Traction Companies and Property
Owners L1Ok al the Matter.

Next TO her enormous industries, rapid
transit street railways have been the great
est blessing 10 Pittsburg. They have caused
the erection Of houses in every suburb. To
live Eve or even six miles from ones place
Of business is no longer an item worth q mo-
ment's consideration. business rapidly
takes the space formerly occupied by houses.
and IL will soon take all the remaining ter
fitefy IN the dowhtewh districts
The question then is, where will the night
workers lnd honest Al present, men
whose business keeps them until after ~
o'clock all have 10 live In the central part Of
town or sit up until morning 10 catch q
street ear, In other cities street cars run all
night. In some the street car lines are COM
PEELED by ordinance of Councils TO run cars
every 20 minutes from midnight until @
O'Clock in the morning.
In Pittsburg there is q great demand for
street car accommodations after midnight
In order to see whether Pittsburg could not
have an all-night street car ordinance, Mr..
C. L. Magee was interviewed by a DIS
PATCH reporter yesterday.
THINKS THEM NECESSARY.
"All-night cars are a necessity" said Mr..
Magee, "and it has always been my idea to
have them. 1 will run cars all night on the
Duquesne Traction Company's lines. 1
know they have an ordinance in
New York compelling the street railways
there to run cars all night, but it would not
answer here. While such an ordinance
could be passed, it could not be enforced.
The ordinances granted to the various lines
are in the shape of contracts, and the city
could not tell them how their roads should
be operated. I believe however, that all
the lines will have to run cars during the
hours between midnight and dawn. On our
line we do not expect to make money rum
ming all. night cars but the morning news
paper men, railroad and postoffice employees,
printers and telegraph operators will be able
to 20 to the country. While the night cars
will not pay, the families of these
men will be in the suburbs,
and we will get all their travel The
increase in the daylight travel more than
compensate for the losses at night, if there
should be any, while the increase in the
valuation of property which the addition of
this class of people would cause will all be
clear gain"
ALL MUST COAlE TO IT.
"All-night cars are a necessity, and every
line must come to it, sooner or later" said
Superintendent Davis, of the Pi ttsburg
Traction line. ''Of course, on our line we
would have to run horse cars. We have
to inspect the cable every night, and make
the necessary repairs to the machinery.
We can only do this at night. 1 don't be-
lieve all-night cars will become general un-
til the storage battery is perfected. They
could be run then so cheaply that it would
not require big patronage to support them.
Still, we could run horse cars. 1t would
take four cars to give one car an hour over
our lines. This would cost SIS a night.
while it might not pay now, L believe it
would in very short time. Newspaper
men, printers, telegraph operators and all
the other people who work at night would
move to the country rather than live in the
heart Of the city. BY charging 10 cents a
"trip it would only take 100 fares night to
pay expenses.
For my part would be willing to have
ail-night cars, but / cannot put them on
without orders. There is soon to be a meet |
ing of the stockholders of the road, and the |
matter Of running all-night cars will prob |
ably come up then. ] don't know lust how |
the company would act on such an ordi- |
nance. 1t is also question with me whether
Councils could compel any street railway
to run all-night cars"
WILL RUN ALL NIGHT.
81 don't see that we would oppose nm
ordinance for all-night cars" said Secretary
McDavltt Of the Duquesne Traction Com
pany. We intend TO run all-night cars over
our lines, but don't think they will be run
oftener than every hour. / think that will
be frequent enough 10 accommodate the
people. All-night cars are needed. People
who get done work at the odd hours in the
would rather live In the suburban
than In the central part of the city, but at
present they cannot get out. Night cars
will have good effect in building up the
Huburbs We will run electric cars all
night. We can do this without running as
great current rs during the day."
For almost year the Birmingham Trac-
tion Company has been running all-night
cars, and they claim II pays them. Mr..
Curry was interviewed at the Southside
Office yesterday. He said: "0ur experiment
with all-night cars has been successful.
They arc paying first rate now. The fact
that people can come TO the Southside at
any hour OF the night has brought large
numbers over here. The business on night
cars is growing steadily. When the electric
cars are put on, we will run electric cars at
bO l. oOu buppOs6 the company |
wOnld object to an ordinance requiring all
night cars"
DON'T RUN FAR ENOUGH.
None Of the Citizens Traction Companv
officials were about the headquarters of the
road, but the head bookkeeper, in answer to
a question, growled out: "We don't want
anything to do with night cars. The ones
we are running now to Butler street do not
pay. 1 doubt whether anyone would move
further out il the night cars ran clear to
East Liberty. 1 don't know how the COM
pany would act in the matter"
The Central Traction Company claims it
would be impossible for them to run all
night cars. Said Superintendent Smith yes
terday: 1--WE could not run cable cars all
night, because we must have time to clean
and repair the machinery. From mid
night until morning is the only
lime we have to attend to this
work. 1t would be unsafe to run the cable
Ill the time. Then horse cars would hardly
10, because the grades on Wylie avenue are
zoo steep. hardly believe it would pay
,ur line to run night cars at present
there is great deal of truth in
he argument that night cars would induce
hight workers to live out along the line.
I'M not certain that the Central Traction
would oppose an ordinance for all
light cars, but at present / don't see how 4
hey could be run on this road