Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-07
THE LEXINGTON RAILWAY.
A Cause for Gratitude to Seuator
Mcmillan by Those Who Use IL.

A Cause for Gratitude to Seun,or
Mcmillan by Those Who Use IL.
To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
I was gratified to read in your paper of
yesterday that Senator Mcmillan. in intro
ducing a bill for the new owners of the
lexington, Belt and Columbia and Mary
land Railroad Companies declined to pro-
pose an extension of time to those corpora
tions for the equipment of the city lines
with rapid transit. Ny gratitude was the
more keen because of an object lesson that
was AFFORDED me and forty-seyen other nat
rons of the lexington line during the after
noon, serving to show the inadeuuacy of
the present equipment and the tendency of
the present management to disregard the
law, the Commissioners orders and the
convenience of the passengers who are
forced to use their line. The present sched-
uie, approved by the Commissioners. calls
LOT a hve-minute run on the part of the
horse cars that go from the Baltimore and
Potomac railroad station to the junction
with the trolley line at the end of New
YORK avenue. The trolley cars are sun
posed to run every ten minutes. Thus il is
the usual experience that each trolley car
carries OIL the passengers landed by two
morse cars on the picturesque, comfortable
ana wholesome waiting platform at the
junction. incidentally 1 would like to call
the attention Of the health authorities of
the District to this establishment as a mod
el OF cleanliness and sanitation.
Last evening the horse car on which I
was reached the junction, going east and
north, just after the motor car had left
II was then $40, and, according to the
scneoule, another motor should have left
at 90 AS matter of fact the next mo-
TOT lett at $50, carrying. with the muscular
AID OF the conductor and individual passen-
gers. the passengers from four well-flled
fhDf had
meanwhile. There were forty-eight passen-
gers on the trolley car when it left the
junction, a staggering load for the miser-
aple apology for an electric motor that
struggled at the trucks with many Shrek
ing protests. These trolley cars will COM
1ortably seat about eighteen people and will
accommodate about twenty more in the
aisle and on the platform. The result of
the enlightened policy now in force on this
road is thus to be seen in this deprivatio
OF the first essentials of the comfort due to
the patrons Of the road. The hardship of
the case is to be better appreciated when it
IS explained that a large majority of the
people thus packed into the trolley car
Travelled all the way out to the terminus
of the line at Brookland, thus continuing
the lntolerable crowding from start to fin
ISM. therefore 1t is that those unhappy
persons who must either suffer these tor
lures or walk-unless they possess bicycles
are glad that the chairman of the Senate
District committee will not consent to such
an unnecessary extension of time as the
new owners of the property request. These
patrons feel that there is sufficient time for
the equipment of the road if ordinary dill
gence be used, and they hope to see some
guaranty of good faith given in the form
Of works before the houses Of Congress
show any further consideration for these
mismanaged properties Meanwhile It is to
be hoped that the Commissioners will in
sist upon faithful following of the sched-
ule they have generously permitted to be
adopted, and that the health officer will
likewise insist upon the furnishing of de-
cent accommodation for the passengers who
are forced to wait for connections at this
junction point. SUBURBAN.
January Z, 1893