Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1905-04-08
How British Cities Man.
age Public Utilities
Liverpoors Experience Owner nd Operator of Its
Street Railways Lighting nc Power Industry
BY FRIEDRICH UPHAr1 ADAN1S 5
Copyright 1904 by rrode,:cn rpham AdamSl

now cou'W: uriu- attention in
Great Hritajn. liverpool WAS one of
the pioneers in trLuWay construction.
though it WAS ONLY recently that the
municiprlit. can" into fun possession
of tramwHy properties. lis experience
with tie hoaStcd English conservatism
is fairly typical. After George Fran
els Train and other Americans had
demonstrated at Ejrkcnhcad. Il suburb
of Liverpool the rrHcticHbility of
tramWayS the city authorized Il com
puny to use its streets for that Dur
pose This was in 1860 -Four years
later the service was SO insufficient
that the city served notice ON the com
pany to remove ills tracks, SubSp-
QuCWlN a compromise WHS made hV
which the city reconstructed the lines
at the cost of tn" company. In 1879
tn" company entered into an agree
mcnt with the city under which the lat
ter purchased the existing lines for
$lIOOOO and completed various other
lines, leasing the whole system to the
company at Il rental of -. per cent on
the purchase money from the date of
construction, tie lines to be maintain-
ed ut the cost of the city In lS9J the
city made Il lease to the company cX-
tending until 1913. but reserved the
right to purchase under certain condi-
tiOnS
Two years later the patience of Liv-
crpool WAS exhausted. The company
utterly failed to properly manage its
affairs. Its rates We're cNtOrtionate
and its service worse 1t absolutely re
fused to introduce mechanical or clcc-
trical power, and after due dcIibrratiOn
the city decided to acquire and operate
the undertaking. Parliament granted
the power, and in 1897 the entire
system passed into the hands of the
municipal authorities. the purchase
price being about $500 900
The city went about the tramway
enterprise in thorough business way.
1t proceeded to eu"agr the services of
{. X. Rcllamy. one of the foremost of
English civil and mechanical engineers
4 man fully cuuVcrSant with the sci
cncc ana practice of transportation on
both sides of the Atlantic In two
years time tie hundred miles of horse
car tracks had been transformed to
electrical traction and in addition
there had been laid forty miles of new
track.
The r.tiznus ,.nr. lrIi.,htr,I wifi, tI,
chance In thr uI.,rn nf fIthv III Ii,,ht.
cd AMI slow mnyinm horse ,.,rs ruu-
uinu IF Inn., iutor,.,I. thor, ,..,.. IN
st,IInd , s,..tcn, which in .,l ro,,,,o,+s
romnorns f,ynr,IIv with tnn host mod
crn nrorticn in tnr I,uffnI St,trs mr. ON
the continent N,ro th,u th,t t,o ,it,.
m,dn =, .,y,o,iu., r.,Iu.ti,n in tho
rotns nf faro
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