The Washington times., 1903-06-24
Passenger Traffic.

While It may be shown that the Balu-
more and Ohio Railroad IS behind some
Of the other lines IN the matter Of car
rying freight into and out OF Washing
ton. when reports are submitted for the
present year the story as to passenger
traffic most likely. is going to be dif-
ferent.
Through the "hustling' propensities
Of Col s. B. Hege and his assistants.
A. c. Wilson. the city passenger agent;
II. p Baldwin, the travelling passenger
agent, and II. P. Merrill the ticket
agent. business has gone through the
Office at Fifteenth Street and New York
Avenue, this spring In a volume sur
prising to some of the older agents.
one reason for this is the growing
popularity of the road and the many
seaside and mountain resorts reached
by it.
| In fact. the road has been building
! extensions and acquiring branches until
at the present time there is scarcely
any resort of note in the East not reach
ed BY it, to say nothing of the myriads
of small and comfortable places in the
mountains and on the rivers and bays,
! for the families of the men whose
! pocketbooks are not large enough to al
low expensive outings.
With this condition in mind, It is no
| longer remarkable that there is always
a crowd at the counter in the Fifteenth
Street agency.
If any road out of Washington exceeds
the Baltimore and Ohio, it will. OF
course. be the Pennsylvania, the bust
ness being handled by District Passen-
ger Agent Newbold who has succeeded
| Mr. Yungman a few days ago. The
business of the Keystone system Is al
ways so great that few lines can COM
pete with Il.
In fact, It is the Pennsylvania which
holds the record of the United States,
if not the world, for the highest per
mile passenger business.
This record was made and is sustained
on the line between Philadelphia and
Harrisburg. where the business is said
to be no less than $4,000 per mile pei
year.
II is said that on some Of the Other
lines east of Pittsburg the business
comes near reaching a similar figure
Some of the other lines running on
of Washington do not do so bad, bu
they cannot touch the Pennsylvania
record. one of these roads is the Ches
apeake and Ohio.
In discussing the passenger bushes
/
Passenger Agent william S. Bronson
said that on one section of that road tn
passenger business per mile per yea
1 amounted to more than 10000
OF course. the Chesapeake and Obi
has not the immense population to dra'
: upon that the Pennsylvania has. but tn
: figures are supposed to be the recor
! for the South.
r Between Birmingham and Atlanta
q big business is done, and the Souther
1 Railroad between Atlanta and Washing
T. ton has a great amount OF traffic, whic
n is shown by the figures in the report
i Of General Agent Col. L. S. Brown, al
Assistant General Passenger Agel
e Brooks Morgan. But the distance tra'
r eled cuts down the ratio, and the figure
Is do not touch those Of Agent Bronson.
Division Passenger Agent Conklyn,
the seaboard Air Line, and DivisiC
Passenger Agent Reed Of the Atlant
d Coast Line, can furnish some fine stat
ID ments of business. but they are not
T. the record breaking class when cor
Il pared to the big Northern roads.
It In the South they make an excelle
&C showing. and II they had as much tray
.e in the summer as they do when &
~ rush of tourists into the beautiful par
OF Florida comes In the winter, tn
, would not be so far behind their Mort
IA ern rivals.
be Washington itself has record, In co
nection with passenger traffic, which
~ is interesting 10 recall just here. This
Az the per capita travelling record Of
H. country. II seems, according to
~ statement of one Of the passene
ir agents, that there Is more travelling
and out of Washington IN ratio to
. size OF the Capital, than there is
an and from any other city.
ay This condition Is due, the agent So
ne TO the fact that moro than one-h
~ Of the population Of the city has So
kind OF a home in some other local.