The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-15
ANOTHER PAPER RAILROAD.

A San Francisco paper has given other
Pacific coast newspapers something to
talk about for a week or two Our far
west contemporary says that company
has been organized to build railroad be-
tween Salt Lake and San Francisco, and
as starter the sum of s3,OO0,OOO has been
raised. AS to the route the paper says:
The road wlllruI southerly and westerly from
Salt Lake city through the richest portions of
Utah, into and through the great cattle ranges
of eastern and central Nevada, touching at
Eureka; thence. in a comparatively straight
course, to "a point near Wadsworth, where 1t
will intersect the Central Pacific, and from that
point through the Beckwith pass in Plumas
county, California, and by easy gradients down
the fruitful Plumas valley and rich agricultural
regions of north California to San Francisco,
with yards and supply depot near Alvarado in
Alameda county, at which point there are some
hills of rock, suitable for mole building and
filings, at which, at a comparative small ex-
pendiuure. might be filed into a causeway
across the shallow part of San Francisco bay,
so that the railway could have direct line
across to this city without ferry transfers.
THE HERALD would caution those OF it's
readers who contemplate visit to the bay
not to delay until the completion OF the pro-
iected road. OF course the competition
will reduce rates somewhat but it may be
doubted that the reduction will be sufficient
to compensate for the delay. The only ad-
vantage in waiting might be in getting in
terest on the price of the ticket, and thus
saving enough to take the entire family
along.
1t is possible that we are mistaken, but
this strikes US as paper railway pure and
simple. 1t would be exceedingly difficult
to induce Californians to invest money in a
road in opposition to the Central Pacific,
provided there are men not directly or in
directly interested in the company named
with money enough to build the road. This
is not all: The proposed road would virtu-
ally parallel the Central Pacific and be an
immediate competitor for all the through
and much of the local business which now
goes to the existing road, and it is well
known that the Central Pacific has made nc
money for years. Capitalists are not keen
: to rush into competitive field where the
business is not profitable.
THE HERALD has long believed that Salt
Lake will have another outlet to the coast
than the Central Pacific, but we have
, never thought the line would parallel the
present road. The railway which we need
which California wants and which will pay
2 the builders handsomely, will be the one
3 which reaches Los Angeles by the most di
rect route. It will have tributary country
g all to itself, and need never fear competi
Q ton in the local business; while its field fcl
$ through traffic will be immense, covering
a all of Southern California. The wonder
Q has been that while millions have beer
b. squandered in railroads which gave M
: hope of paying, this rich field has been lief
unoccupied.
y The San Francisco and Salt Lake pro
= iect noted in our dispatches will doubtless
t early vanish into flake"