The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-11-13
PAIN CARS IN PIUKIA
THE RAPID TRANSIT EXTENSION
BLOCKS TRAFFIC..
The Two Lines Running Parallel Mo-
nopolize the Entire Road to Palama
and Kalihi.

Tramways cars has caused many heart
felt comments of late on the King
street line, where passengers have
waited wearily on a switch for min
utes that dragged into half hours be-
fore the welcome sight of the slowly
perambulating mules of the other car
appeared ON the opposite direction. The
blame has been laid by Pains drivers
and inspectors on the laborer's of the
Rapid Transit Company who, in has
tening the completion of their line to-
wards Kalihi have Obstruccted the rails
and tracks of the old company.
A trip along the line towards Palama
shows the absolute impossibiblity of
any vehicle, be il buggy, express or
draught wagon, bicycle or tram car,
travelling at a faster pace than a walk
between Liliha and the end of the mule
line or indeed beyond.
From the reform school there is
constant congestion of traffic.
wagon belonging to Judge Wilcox took
an hour and a half making the trip the
other day and the only wonder is that
it was made at all
An army of laborers are at work on
the Rapid Transit Company extension
carrying on the laying of the tracks
at the different stages of progression
simultaneously. Far out Palama the
road bed formed almost entirely of
irregular blocks of coral is being
quickly torn up, closer in VIDE
trench is prepared ready for the sleep
ers. and at different sections rails are
laid down and perhaps filed in with
the crushed rock ready for rolling.
For the whole length of the work,
possibly a little over a mile the tracks
run closely together sometimes not tar
enough apart to allow of buggy pass
! ing between the mule cars and the
trench of the new line. When a car
| and vehicle meet on the stretches there
is usually lively time while the horse
is backed out or the buggy turned
around.
Meantime wagons loaded with crush
ed rock, wagons loaded with rails,
steam roller, gangs of men working on
heaps of stone by the side of the tracks,
rails lying on the ground trolley poles
scattered here and there, make passage
almost impossible for ordinary trafic
which has to scramble up hill and down
dale. and confiscate the sidewalks,
while horses back and balk and their
drivers air their opinions of their cattle
and each other in fluent Japanese, Chi
| nese and Hawaiian with vim and
abandon that perhaps renders them
best said in a foreign tongue.
| Whenever a wagon laden with mate
rials for the electric road gets ahead
l
up the way when dumping a load or
stones, the movements of the drivers
are marked with a calm deliberation
! and deafness to the changing bell that
lis peculiarly eXasperating to the Jehus
that manipulate the mules as well as
4 to passengers. From the end of the
Palama switch to Liliha street the
mule chariots run a gauntlet of delays
/ blockades and narrow passings that
fYno
scrapes ACROSS whatever paint time
has left on the cars and in the nervous
exhaustion of the drivers.
BY the rice fields on the mauka side
where barefooted Chinese women are
cleaning stray grains from the last
, crop, excavations for sewer pipes help
along the miX-up and necessitate the
changing a car Meanwhile Manager
Rallentyne seems likely to have his eX-
tension in running order by Saturday
When all is finished and cleared IL Is
hard TO see what will remain OF the
public highway for business or pleasure
!. driving. SO closely do the two lines
run together, without reckoning where
switches come that a horse and buggy
caught with a mule car coming III one
direction and a swiftly moving trolley
: car in the other will, be in an extreme
: lv hazardous position that will take a
cool head and capable driver to make
, the best of. Progress Will always De d
procession timed to the speed OF the
: foremost conveyance.
5 There are many places where even a
breaking cart could not pass between
two cars. AS for the sidewalk that Is
already appropriated for long strips al
a time.
1t is little wonder that cars Waikiki
of King street wait indefinitely on the
switches and are likely to do so unit
the extension is completed