The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-15
ELECTRICITY FOR
RAILWAY TRAVEL
Further Triumphs Believed by Engineers
to Be Imminent,
GREAT INCREASE OF SPEED POSSIBLE
Last Years Experiments Reviewed.
What Steam Road Managers are
Thinking and DOing..Trains In.
stead Of Single Cars for Long. dis.
taHce Suburban Travel.
From the New York Tribune.

Achi tisS A~CW ioIh
IN few years electric roads will
have absorbed practically all the local
(passengeD traffic, and will begin to
cut into through transportation. The
steam roads cannot afford this. Their
only safety Is to make electricity an
ally instead of an enemy. and before it
is too late" These words were uttered
last summer by DR.. Louis Duncan, then
newly elected president of the Ameri-
can Institute of Electrical Engineers.
The most casual observer knows how
abundant and strong We're the reasons
for such q prophecy then. And yet they
are still more numerous and convincing
now.
Take. for instance, the immediate
outskirts of the metropolis. Above the
Harlem river, over in New Jersey. and
In the region lying south of older
Brooklyn there has been a marvellous
extension of trolley lines within the
last two or three years. All of these
roads have been taken from steam
roads with which they compete large
proportion of their classes of patrons:
First, Typical suburban residents, who
come into the business part of town
regularly or irregularly; second, essen
tally rural passengers. who only ride
from one station to the next or possib
1y to the second or third beyond their
homes; third, pleasure-seeking eXcu:-
sionists The reduction in fare and
greater frequency of trips are advan-
ages which appeal to the purses and
convenience of every one. 1t Is not to
'e wondered at that the steam lines
iave suffered heavily in conse-
Iuence. Near Boston, Philadel-
,hia, Chicago, st. Louis and other CEN
res of population in the United States
substantially the same revolution has
oeen effected. Then out through New
England and the middle states, in re-
sions that are so well built up that
mail but thriving towns and villages
Ire Strung along the railway like beads
IN / cord, there is a great deal of social
md business traffic between reighbor-
.ng places. Heretofore the steam roads
have had almost n monopoly Of that
business. But now tho ''inter-urban"
trolley, running over the parallel route.
providing more frequent service and
stopping anywhere between the regular
stations OF the old lines, has captured
IN enormous percentage Of it.
TROLLEY TRAIN.
Then again ther are more pretentious
siectris roads which run trains, instead
Of single cars. The Cleveland, Plains
vile and Eastern. for instance, running
through thirty miles of the Lake Shores
territory. has regular coaches. hauled
by motor car something like those
which are being built for hauling trains
Across Brooklyn Bridge. The Cleveland
and Akron lire, of about the same
length, has similar cars and motors. The
electric road from Buffalo to Niagara
Falls, fourteen and q half miles long,
did an enormous business last year with
light cars, but is now being freshly
equipped with heavier rolling stock. All
three Of these. like the road still under
construction from Washington to Balti-
more. compete with old established
steam lines. The Niagara Falls road I'm
particular has greatly damaged the in
terests of its venerable competitor. Per-
haps half a dozen other surface roads
and two or three elevated roads in Chi
cago could be enumerated which are
already running regular trains, made
up of a motor car and trailers.. And 1t
ls needless to say that there are hund-
reds Of schemes on foot, only a part of
which will ever bear substantial fruit.
which contemplate parallelng ether
steam lines for distances varying from
ten to one hundred miles. or else reach
Ing out into territory not now provided
with better transportation facilities
than horse and carriage or a bicycle;
Ind many OF these programmes include
arst-class roadbeds, heavy rails and
trains instead Of individual cars.