Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-06
MUST BUILD 4 STATION For Comfort of Passengers at
 EnSIey. so SAYS THE COMMISSION Superintendent Sullivan of the K. (. M, & B., Notified of the Decsion-Confed- crate Pensions OiscuSSed-Mis-
 cellany
SO SAYS THE COMMISSION

| dered the following opinion in the Pratt | City depot case, which was thoroughly l investigated by the honorable gentle | men during a special session of the com- | mission held in Birmingham on the 16th | ultimo:
 l Thomas H. Moore ct al. vs. Kansas City | Memphis and Birmingham Railroad | Company.
 | The complainants in their petition ask | for a notice in writing to issue to the | Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham
 Railroad company for the erection of depot house at the station called Ems | ley In order to promptly inform our | selves as to the precise situation at Pratt | City and Ensley we made a personal in- l specton of the premises and then noti- | fled the compliments and the defendant corporation to appear before our board | in the city of Birmingham on the 18th | day of July, 1895, to offer such evidence l as they might consider important in the 1 case. We held a special session in Blr- l mingham at the time above named, when | the compliments and defendant offered | testimony of many witnesses, each side | being represented by counsel.
 | The evidence taken in this case tends
 to show that the population at Pratt City l is probably between $500 and 4000 in num- | per, anu lldI WllIllIl d ol lhi1S | and half to four miles from the center ] of the corporation there are perhaps 5000 | to 5000 more inhabitants. Pratt City is situated nearly six miles west of Bir- | mngham. About thirty or probably l forty business houses are in or near Pratt | City, and they receive very much the | greater part of their merchandise and | stock in trade from Birmingham by waS- | on and on the cars of the dummy l1ne. l Between $1200 and $2000 per month is | paid for ordinary freight charges, and | $175 to $200 per month is paid out for eX- press charges Nearly the entire amount | of freight is paid to the dummy line, the | express company and wagon trains en- gagged as carriers between Pratt City | and Birmingham, and the amount paid | to the Kansas City, Memphis and Bir- mingham Railroad company is very small
 The Kansas City, Memphis and Bir- | mingham Railroad company runs pas senger trains and freight trains daily out of Birmingham, passing Pratt City and making stops at a small station near by called Ensley. This is the only rail road company except the dummy lines running passenger trains daily to Pratt City. The Louisville and Nashville, the Georgia Pacific, now the southern ana the Alabama Great Southern Railroad companies run freight trains to and near Pratt City, and most usually carrying coal, coke, ores, stone and other furnance supplies. The Tennessee Coal and Iron Railroad company. also runs freight trains to and by Pratt City, but they do not carry for the public-they haul their own freight. Passenger trains | over the dummy lines run in and out or Pratt City to and from Birming ham | every fifty minutes in the day until | o'clock in the evening, and thereafter every hour and half until midnight | Freight cars are also attached to the | dummy lines when necessary to move | the freight.
 The freight charges over the dummy | lines and by wagons were shown to be- l on the character of the freight usually | transported, s cents and less per l0o pounds Over the Kansas City, Mem- | phis and Birmingham it is 10 cents and | more. The frequency of the dummy | trains and the difference in rates plainly | shows why the defendant corporation 1 cannot get any more of this short line | freight. 4, e.o,~.,4 If was also shown that the freight | shipments to Ensley for Pratt City from | Memphis and other western points over | tbe. Kansas City, Memphis and Birmng- ham railroad were very small Tn volume' and practically of little value to the rall-
 road compaey as revenues; a,st biIintng t'ihiltias noint. Its strength of railroad position makes it a basing point. Freight snip ments from Memphis and other western points over the Kansas City, Memphls and Blrm1nRndHl TdiilOdu oiN n,lch lower rate to Birmingham than to Ensley. for. necessarily, under business principles controlling the railway ser, vice Ensley must be treated as local station. r,,. law if would be cheaper for the Pratt City merchant to have his purchases from Memphis and other western polhts consigned to him at Birmingham ana
 then hauled by the cheapest line to Pratu
 ,afa0T TlU
 the haul on any freight from Birmlng-
 ham to Ensley and Pratt City which has
 come to Birmingham from the north or
 east over the Louisville and NashVlile
 or the Alabama Great Southern or the
 Georgia Pacific or the Central of Geor-
 gia. All of these roads have lines into
 Pratt City over which they would de-
 liver all such freight themselves. 1t was
 shown that the merchants and traders
 of Pratt City most usually made their
 purchases from New Orleans Mobile,
 Nashville, Cincinnati Baltimore and
 New York. All of this freight reaches
 Pratt City over other lines of railroad, as
 indicated above.
 Under these facts we can take no view
 of this case in which the freight business
 at Ens1ey would be increased to any con-
 siderable extent by the building of a
 freight house. Neither can we see that
 the erection of such a house would be of
 any material importance or value to the
 merchants of Pratt City. Economy, an
 important factor in business would in-
 duce the hauling of all freights out of
 Birmingham to Pratt City by the cheap
 est and quickest route.
 No proof was offered as to what effect
 the erection of freight house at Ems
 ley would have in inducing freights to
 that point from local stations on the line
 of the road west of Ensley. We think
 that it is probable that some increase in
 business would arise out of the local
 traffic induced by the convenience of a
 freight house at Ensley, but we are not
 in a position to understand the nature of such traffic, nor it's value to the mer-
 chant or the railroad company. In determining the matter of requiring this railroad company to build a freight