Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-26
THE BRIGHTWo0D RAILWAY.
Attention Called to the Generally
Neglected Condition of the Road.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
I desire 20 call the attention of every
citizen of the District of Columbia to the
decentralization of the Rrightwood railway
and the multitude of evils that have result
ed to the people of. Brightwood, Takoma,
PetWorth and other portions of our COM
munity by reason of the deplorable and gen
orally neglected condition of this road. The
service has been wretchedly bad for more
than two years, and getting worse all the
time, but deterioration under the new man
agement has been SO rapid that now there
is no such thing as regularity in the run
ming of cars and the few that do run are
unsafe, owing to the neglected condition of
the road, cars being in bad repair and oper-
ated by inexperienced and undergrad oper-
auVes. | hesitated for q long time about
calling the attention of the people of the
District of Columbia to this matter,
hoping that matters might take a
turn for the better but, in view of the fact
that instead of improving they are rapidly
going from bad TO worse patience has
ceased to be virtue.
But let me first direct attention to GER
tain sections of the original charter of said
road of 1883 then 10 amendments thereof
Section of its charter reads:
That the said railway shall be laid upon
such part of the road as may be DESIGNATED
Dy the Commissioners of the District and
must be constructed of good materials and
in substantial and durab bic manner. with
the rails of the most approved pattern. all
to be approved by the Commissioners of the
District, laid upon an even surface with the
pavement of the street and in such a man.
ner as to Interfere with the ordinary travel
as little as practicable, and the gauge to
correspond with that of other city railroads
Section is as follows:
That the said corporation shall at its own
expense, keep its tracks and for the space
n w foot tl.
and also the space between the rails and
tracks, We'll graded or paved and in good
repair, so as to impede the general travel
as little as possible.
Section 10 contains this mandatory lam
gCage:
That the company shall place cars of the
pest construction on said railway, with all
modern improvements necessary to the con-
Venience and comfort of passengers and
shall run cars thereon as often as the pub
lie convenience may require in accordance
with table of schedule fixed by the com
pany, copy of which shall be filed with
the commissioners OF the District of Co
lumbia and approved by them.
An act to amend said charter passed
july 10 1892, directly and unequivocally en-
joins upon said Brghtwood Railway Com
pany the following obligation:
That within six months from the date of
the approval of this act the said Bright
wood Railway Company shall euuip and on
crate its existing line with the overhead
a 6!
shall thereafter maintain the road in first
class condition. That the road shall be sup
piled entirely with new cars of the most
approved pattern, which shall be run as the
public convenience shall require but not
less frequently than one car every fifteen
minutes from each end of the line between
. O'Clock ante meridian and II o'clock mid
night.
And section 4 of said amendment reads.
That any failure to comply with anv of
the provisions of this act shall work a for
fixture of the original charter of the said
Brightwood Railway Company. All acts
or parts of acts inconsistent with the pro-
visions of this act are hereby repealed
An important act amendatory of the char
ter was approved February p, 1893, not
necessary to be quoted for the purposes of
this protest.
1t is notorious that this road, like many
others in our limits, has been absorbed by
foreign syndicate. Since this change of
ownership the condition. and service of this
road have grown much worse. Aside from
the fact that the old and best EMPLOYEES
have been discharged Or forced to resign to
reduce expenses patrons from either end of
and along the route are compelled because
of unreliable schedules Incompetence and
acknowledgement to waitanywhere from fif-
teen to fOrty-fVe minutes and even longer
for car. and then must be satisfied NOT
only with those having newly broken-in
boys for conductorssand- poorly paid motor
men, but those which seem not to have been
cleansed for a year. and the noise iolting
humping and bouncing of which nearly dis
tract the passengers.
l have recently known children to wait
two three hours for a closed car on a
very cold day on their way to and from
school. On another occasion a car laay-
ing the District line carried passengers to
Takoma Park junction, and when that
point was reached on a single track, re-
turned for mile with the passengers he
cause of mistake to allow another car to
pass regularly. Several cars are in use
with fiat surface wheels which causes mosI
disagreeable jolting, bounding and deaf
ening noise similar to that produced by
steam hammer. The tracks are in q
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