The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-22
625,95S.S3


 for permanent improve
 ments ................ S,SO1, ,S61 .49 Number of new ties laid. 1,56SS92 Tons of new steel rails
 laid ......u........... 9,165,25 Total number of employees,
 including officers..... 27,4S4 Total compensation of
 same ..................,. $16, 6,6O9, 7S1, ,OS Number employed in
 maintenance of way and
 structures ...........," 7,l79 Amount paid for their ser-
 vices ,.....,........,. $S,196,6 6S7,22 Number of highway cross-
 ings at grade. 1O30 Number of highway cross
 ings eliminated during
 year ...................... l
 The portion of the report devoted to steam roads closes with the detailed re- port as to the condition of the several roads.
 STREET RAILWAYS.
 In the portion of the report devoted to street railways, the commissioners say:
 We wish again to call attention par ticularly to the matter of the returns of the street railway companies. By the act of 1895 these returns are to be made to us in such form as we may prescribe but substantially as re- quired by the Interstate Railroad com- mission from steam railroad compa- nies. The law was not passed nor the forms prepared and sent out to the n till tha nIOca of that fiscal year, so that it was not to be ex- pected that the first set of returns would be satisfactory, but we did what we could to get them reduced to proper form and sent to all the companies a circular letter of instructions, which we thought would secure more correct returns for the present year, and in sending out the blanks for the returns herewith submitted we also sent a copy of the same circular, which appeared in the appendix to our last report. When the returns for the year last past were received we found an im- proVement over the preceding year, but they were not so full or correct as they ought to have been, It is fair, howev- eri to say that they were no more in- correct than were the returns of the steam railroad companies when we be- gan, twenty years ago, to get those into proper form, and, perhaps, we may hope that the returns of the street railway companies may soon be made as perfect as those now made to us by the steam roads. Before that is ac- complished however, much greater care must be exercised by the account ing officers, and additional legislation must be had Either the law requiring returns should be repealed or such fur ther legislation enacted as will make the present requirements effective.
 The Manufacturers Street Railway in New Haven, the first to be constructed for the transportation of freight, con- meeting at Cedar Hill station in New Haven with the tracks of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, and the Enfield and Longmeadow Elec- tric Railway, have both been opened for business since the close of the fiscal year. and therefore do not appear in this report. All now reporting are equipped with electricity.
 The increase in mileage of roads has been only 29.79 miles.
 The statutory prohibition against the crossing of any steam railroad at grade by any electric, horse or cable road may have prevented some extensions of street railroads, and we have heard ru- mors that an attempt will be made at the coming session of the General As sembly to have the prohibition re- pealed We do not know of single 1,,I,y eI,n La and cannot believe it will be attempted, much less accomplished. The condi- tions and restrictions imposed by the street railway act of 1893 have also re- tarded the building of some new lines and extensions. Among other provi- sions of the act was one that no street railway should thereafter be built or extended from one town to any other town in the public highways so as to parallel any other street railway or steam railroad, unless authorized by special charter prior to January 1, 1893, until the company desiring to build, construct or extend such railway should have applied to the Superior court, or any judge thereof and have obtained from such court or judge a finding that public convenience and necessity re- quired the construction of such rail- way. No attempt has yet been made in this state to operate any street railway in connection with a steam railroad by having the electric cars run over both, but it is to be tried elsewhere, as the Cincinnati Hamilton & Dayton rail- road company has purchased the Mid dletown, Ohio, street railway, and, it is said, proposes to connect it's tracks with those of the street railway, and operate, by electricity, through cars from all parts of Middletown to Hamil- ton, a distance of fifteen miles. We are also informed that the Chicago x Northwestern railway and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway compa- nies propose to run electric street cars out of Chicago over their respective roads. These experiments will be watched with much interest by railroad men and the general public The New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad company, with it's ownership of tho Meriden Electric and the Stamford street roads, is admirably situated to do the same thing, and when the power house at Berlin is finished, and the electric cars are running over the New Britain branch. and over the New Eng land between Hartford and New Brit