Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-07-20
That New C. T. o. Schedule.

It is safe to say that no sche0ule IN
recent years has caused so much unfa-
vorable comment and criticism as the
| one that went into effect on the &. 4 0.
road last Sunday. BY its provisions
Nos. and S-the New Mountain
ISpecial''-makes no regular stop be-
tween Charlottesville and Clifton
Forge, N os. and stop between those
points only at StauntOn, while No. =
lays over at Charlottesville instead OF
StauntOn thus depriving this city OF
any east bound afternoon local train.
When President Stevens, Mr.. Hotch-
kiss and other G. & D. officials were
here last spring they promised our
Chamber of Commerce and other bust
ness men an improved passenger SER
| vice, and later on that promise was
redeemed. The summer schedule that
went into effect June 18th, was all that
could have been desired and gave gen.
eral satisfaction. But on last Sunday
| it was knocked sky high by another
time table This last our people CON
slider about the worst that human in
| pepuity could devise. By it Staun
| ton is made flag station for two OF
| the trains Nos. and 8, and only then
under certain conditions. 1t is true
that these trains have always stopped
here, but the element OF uncertainty,
both a. to getting ON or off renders
the Mountain SpeciaP' practically
useless to the travelling public of this
section. II passenger wants to go to
points between Charlottesville and Cliff
| ton Forge, he must guess as to wheth-
or the train will stop at them or not.
Stanton is one Of the guessing points,
Basic and Goshen are others. True
passenger can some times see the con-
ductor and if he is not too busy he
may enlighten him as to stops, but
STOPS are too short usually to secure
such intelligence and then get aboard,
especially If women or children are
among the party. Unless the early
train can be caught persons wishing
| to 20 by the N. & w. to any point must
drive to Basic Notwithstanding there
are two later trains passing that point
from Staunton daily.
The great injustice Of the new sched-
ule il that the entire country between
Charlottesville end Clifton Forge has
no local service save that of one tram
each way in "a hours. With trains
per day but 2 of them can be relied on
for local business, and even such large
Communities a. WaynesborO, Basic
City, Craigsvllle, Goshen and MillborO,
with their extensive business interests
and heavy passenger travel. must sub
nit to the one train service-a con
Idition some of them have never until
lnow had to face. True, some OF the
many trains, under certain conditions
of through travel, will stop. but nc
!; one knows when these conditions viii
prevail, 10 that the service is practi
cally useless.
Stauuton is admittedly one OF tb'
best passenger points in the State, ant
it is only too ludicrOus to see a flag
man on the platform here waving fol
dear life to coax the engineer to pu
down his brakes. The brightest rel
flag. the most dangerous of DANCE
signals is used and is all that can brinl
trans to terms. The haw. haw, of tn
crowd when this pantOmime was go
. ing on and the way they guyed ane
ie0red the young fiagman was reall.
| too funny to describe. 1t has not ye
been fully determined whether it wa
the color OF young fagman's face Q
, the flag itself which brought the trail
to q standstill. 1t did stop, and n
!. less than twenty passengers got OF an
1 a. many more got on, who, when the
were we'll fixed in their seats, thanke
the kind railway company for coz
J, dissenting to stop just for them. Abou
I q ton or two of baggage, express an
mail was also unlOaded from this sam
train, which it would have been
pity to have scattered along the field
and roadways IN an effort to reach ii
destination. This schedule may be q
q effort to evade the Jim Crow law. an
: Stanton may be classed as a in
}Crow town, but no matter what is To
reason or the why's and wherefore
. StauntOn has a right to complain, an
q she is bound to do 1t and will keep
I'D until she gets what she believes
y juetly due her. Certainly the Z. u
Twill not maintain this schedule long.