The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-29
OFFERS TO OPEN STREETS.
STREET RAILWAY CO.'S PROPOSE
TIoN TO THE CITY.


Lines TO BE Submitted in a Day or
Two-The Company Offers 10 Take
In some of Its Tracks. But Wants
the City TO Guarantee That t'e
Streets Shall Not BE Granted 20
ANY Other COmpany-Matters to Be
Considered by Council Before
Granting Concessions.
The street and lane committee of coun-
Gil will report upon the plan for the re-
vision of the street railway system of the
civ at the next meeting Of council.
The plan will come in the shape Of
proposition from the railway company up
on which the committee viii make such
report and recommendations as it sees
fit.
Repeated conferences have been held be
tween the committee and the representa-
tives Of the railway 10 consider the sub
iect. the intention of the railway people
being TO put the plan in such shape IL
possible. that it will receive the approval
of the entire committee with consequent
probability of its approval by council.
The proposition to be submitted by the
railway will include, it is understood, GER
tain particulars with regard to the man
agement of its lines, such as transfers,
fares, maximum and minimum rates of
speed and maximum limit Of time be
tween cars on various lines. The style
of rail to be used by the company in re-
having its tracks and laying new tracks,
has been submitted TO the committee and
viii doubtless be approved. The intention
of the company is stated TO be TO remove
much of the old fiat rails now on the older
lines and replace it with an improved
street rail-
The most important concessions made
by the company are ssid to be in the way
of opening streets. The company binds
itself TO open Barnard street south to
Tenth street, to open Tenth street to Alb
ercorn, and Bolton street from the Savan-
nah. Florida and Western railway to the
city limits The rght-of-way of Bolton
street from the railway east is the prop
erty of the street railway company, and
has never been acquired by the city The
street has been practically open to the
public for some time, but never having
been improved, has been little used. The
company will also remove its tracks from
Montgomery and Price streets, and from
portions of several other streets. In do
ing so. it will ask a guarantee from the
city that Price street shall never be
granted 10 any other street railway com
pany.
a final conference between the commit
tee and the representatives, Of the railway
company will be held in day or two,
and the committee viii then be ready TO
submit its report to council.
The present condition Of the street rail-
way lines of the city has brought very
forcibly to the minds of a great many
people that there is but one street rail-
way system in the city, and that when
the requests of the railway are granted
by the city there will be but little proba-
bility of a competing line for years to
come. The present lines cover practically
every street in the city of value to a street
railway company, and although it is pro-
posed to abandon some of these streets,
council viii be asked 10 insure the COM
pany against their use by rival compa-
MES The fact that impresses the patrons
of the street railway at present is that
if the revised system should prove to be
no better than the present one the city
would be very badly off, so far as street
railways are concerned. There is good
reason 10 DelleNb lndI a very considerable
improvement will be effected so far as
service and equipment is concerned. What
the patrons OF the street railways desire,
however, is that the company shall be re-
CURED to live up TO its promises, and they
know Of no better plan than to bind il to
these promises now while it is seeking
favoTs at the hands of the council
There are good many things which the
patrons of the street railway want. They
want a well equipped line first, and as
without a well laid track there can be no
smoothly running line, they think ii well
for council to specify the weight of rail
which shall be used hereafter. They de-
sire that the company be required to com
ply with the ordinance which requires
cars to be run on all lines until midnight.
On some of the lines at present no cars
are run after o'clock. A limit of five
cents fare for a ride from any point on
the system to any other point on 1t Is
wanted, of course. The present ordinance
on this subject appears to be defective as
the railroads have heretofore violated 1t
with impunity. Comfortable cars are
wanted. The people do not expect the
company TO furnish palace cars for their
patrons, but they expect at leave to have
closed cars in cold and bad weather and
open cars in warm weather. ana they
would like to have these cars kept clean.
The patrons hardly expect that council
VIII require llit COMPANY 10 equip lls
cars with electric heaters, but they would
like to have them comfortable in winter
weather.
Two items of interest to the public are
the poles and the street crossings. AT
present in many places the rails are high
above the pavements. Where there is nc
pavement the matter is still worse, and
vehicles are damaged by jolting over the
rails.
Another item of importance is the poles
which disfgure the streets and become
more unsightly as the years go by. In
northern cities and in some enterprisine
southern cities wooden poles are prohib-
tied, and the street railway companies are
required to use iron pSles. Only iron poles
are used on Broad street in Augusta. The
company claims it would be a hardship tc
require il to replace all its wooden poles
a once with iron poles, but il has beer
suggested that 1t might be required to sub
stitute iron poles as the wood ones rot out
and in this way gradually make the
change.
The suggestion has been made that the
council committee, before making its re-
port to council, should visit Charleston
where an entirely modern and thoroughly
up-to-date street railway system has re-