Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-25
ALL LOSING MONEY.
Street Railroads Object TO n General
Transfer system.

Transfer system.
The Commissioners today gave a hearing
on Senate bill 1916 introduced several days
ago by Senator Mcmillan. providing for a
general transfer OF passengers on the rail-
roads OF the District. There was no one
present to advocate the approval OF the bill.
but Commissioner Powell read letters from
Mr.. Claude NJ. johnson. chief Of the bureau
of engraving and printing. and from Mr.. A.
7. Britton, advocating the bill.
After reading the letters Commissioner
Powell stated that he had given the mat
ter much thought. and while he considered
that a transfer OF cars from one line 10
another was impracticapie. Ut least at the
present time, he was In favor OF some gem
eral transfer, fair to the public and the
railroads as we'll The scheme, as he I'M
derstood II, provided for rooted union trans
fer stations at convenient points. he no
ticed that the bill said nothing about the
herdic companies, and he thought that
they should be included
A general discussion OF the bill by the
Commissioners ana President Dunlop OF
President Cummings OF the Brightwood
road. Secretary Schoepf OF the BELT and
lexington lines, President Griswold Of the
Anacostia line, and President Stevenson OF
the Metropolitan line followed. The discus
sion was a very brief one and II was In
sisted by the railroad people that the bill
was an impracticable one They said that
in no other city In this country were rail-
road fares as low as here. They therefore
contended that the provisions OF the bill
imposed a hardship upon the railroad COM
panies here In requiring them TO carry
passenger from one extreme point OF the
District TO another for one fare.
Commissioner Powell suggested that =
cents additional be required Tor a transfer
from one road to another. but Mr.. Dunlop
emphatically stated that neither his road
he el OF her he
trict could carry passengers for cents.
Mr.. Cummings of the same opinion.
and said that II cost his road $40 cents
to carry every passenger. So, IL his road
should be compelled 10 carry passengers
from another road without additional fare.
or even at cents, il would mean the col
lapse of the road. Even as things were,
his road last year ran behind sll,voo and
this year IL would probably be $4,000 be-
hind
Mr.. Schoepf remarked that last year the
Belt line ran $S5.OOo behind and the Ecking-
ton line s22,UUo.
President Griswold of the Anacostia line
said that in 1S92 they carried l.l92.6i6 pass
engers. the receipts being soo. $40. The next
year they arranged a system Of transfers
with the Belt line, and. while they In that
year carried 1,S49222 passengers, the re-
ceipts amounted to but s5I.5s4. showing a
loss under the transfer system Of over
5000.
Commissioner Truesdell said that he did
not believe that IL would ever be practicable
to have a uniform fare in the District. The
distances were too great TO allow transpor-
tation in the District for single fare. In
many cities in Europe the fare was regulat-
ed by the distance.
Mr.. Dunlop intimated that such a rule
would be agreeable to him. and. he imagin-
ed. TO the other roads in the District.
The discussion was continued Informally,
conclusion being reached by the Commits
sioners