The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-20
ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MILES
SHORTER THAN SOUTHERN
REACHES 6 SOUTHERN STATE CAPITALS
Bonded Debt Per Mile Less Than Half Of ito
Competitors, Net Earnings Twice as
Large as Interest Charges,
New Lines Projected.

j. Shelton Williams, President of the
>eaboard Air Line, was elected presi-
dent to succeed III. II. Duval, resigned.
No other business of Importance was
transacted.
Portsmouth, Va, Oct. 19.-(Special.)-
President John Shelton Williams, of
the Seaboard Air Lime, made the an
| nOuncement today that his system has
concluded its arrangements for the eper-
alton of through yestibuled trains be-
tween New York and Tampa.
The lime of this system, i'll which the
Florida Central and Peninsula Railroad
and the Georgia and Alabama Railway
are included, wiIl on January 1, 1900,
be completed through from Richmond
TO Jacksonville and Tampa.
Negotiations" said Mr. Williams,
''have been concluded with the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad,
from Richmond to Quantico, and with
the Pennsylvania Railroad, extending
from Quantico TO New York, by which
the trains of the Seaboard Air Line will
enjoy the same rights and privileges be-
tween Richmond and Washington as
those enjoyed by the Atlantic Coast
Line, and from Washington to New
York the Seaboard Air Line will be lmon
precisely the same footing in the use of
the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad
as either the Atlantic Coast Line, the
Southern Railway or the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railway"
The contract with the PENNSYLVANIA
Railroad has been signed by the officials
of both companies, and Il final agreement
h.S. ~,
Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad
for the use of that company tracks be-
tween Richmond and Quantico where
connection will be made with the Penn
sylvania Railroad.
President Williams confirms the report
that his system has recently contracted
with the Pullman Palace Car Company
for four now magnificent vestibuled
trains, which are to be used this winter
by the Seaboard Air Line i'm its nbw
through passenger service between New
York and Jacksonville and Tampa.
These trains will be the most elegant and
luxurious that were ever operated in the
South and will include dining, sleeping,
parlor and observation cars, which will
be furnished with all the conv eniences
and lHxuries that art and ingenuity can
contriye.
The new route thus opened will be
known as THE Florida and West India
Short Lime and will cover the distance
between New York and Tampa by
line about 40 miles shorter than the
Southern Railway, and about Is miles
shorter than the Atlantic Coast lime be-
tween the same points.
The link which is being built by the
Seaboard Air Line to connect its main
line with the Florida Central and Pen
insstlla Railroad at Columbia. is being
laid with new 80 pound steel rails. The
new bridges which are being constructed
are all of steel, and adapted TO the use
of the heaviest locomotives and the fast
est trains.
The new projected lines of the Sea-
board System from Charleston to Au-
gusta, and from Augusta to Athens,
are now being surveyed. Several corps
of engineers are buSiiy engaged in the
work, and nothing definite Will be given
out in regard to this new line until this
preliminary work is completed.
If this new projected road should be
constructed the Seaboard besides being
the shortest line by about 100 miles,
between Washington and Tampa and
Cuba, will have the great advantage
OF operating its own rails for the entire
distance between the cities of Atlanta,
GA, and Augusta, Ga, Atlanta and Sa
vannah, Ga, Augusta and Charleston, ).
c., Augusta and Athens, Ga. by shorter
routes than any now existing between
the important cities mentioned.
The consolidation of the Seaboard Air
Line with the Florida Central and PEN
insula Railroad, amid the Georgia and
Alabama Railway, will probably take
place between now and the first of jan
nary. This new system including its
projected lines, will embrace about 5000
miles of main line of railroad, exclusive
of second track and sidings. This sys-
tenn also controls the Baltimore Steam
Packet Company, which for the past
fifty years has been operating the prin-
cipal line of steamers on the Chesapeake
Bay between Baltimore and Old Point
Comfort Norfolk and Portsmouth.
The combined bonded debt of the rail
roads comprising this system is less than
that of amy other system of like inn
portance in the United States The
present combined bonded indebtedness
per mile of the Seaboard Air Line, Flor
ida Central and Peninsula Railroad, and
A1eplSfd tuiti AIpJdIId IldlEWdN. 9S III
fact less than one-half the debt per mile
of the Southern Railway, about one
third of the debt per mile of either the
Louisville and Nashville, the Mobile and
Ohio on the Norfolk and Western, and
one-fourth of the debt per mile of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
The new system win operate its own
trains from Washington, the capital of
the nation, through the capital cities Of
six South Atlantic and Gulf States,
Richmond, VA, Raleigh, n. c., Column
bia, s. c., Atlanta, Ga, Montgomery,
Ala, and Tallahassee, Fla. 1t will take
in every important seaport from Balti-
more to- Pensacola, including Norfolk,
Wilmington, Charleston. Savannah, Fer
nandina and Jacksonville, ON the ATTAIN
tic, and Tampa, Cedar Keys and st.
Marks ON the Gulf of Mexico, reaching
also the important interior cities and
towns of Durham, Weldon, Henderson
and CghorIo4ta " q. Chester Camden