The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-09-19
NEW HAVEN RAILROAD
SELLS TROLLEY LINES
Fearing State Control Disposes
of Its Holdings.
SIX HUNDRED MILES GIVEN OVER
Seventy-fve Per Cent of the Street
Railways of Connecticut and
Many in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island Included.

Boston-Trolley lines are no long
er part of the assets of the New
York, New Haven and Hartford Rail-
road 1t was announced that the
railroad company had disposed of its
entire group of trolley lines to vol
untary association.
The new voluntary association
which now owns the trolley systems
is to be known, according to report,
as the New England Security and In
vestment Company, and is composed
of a number Of individuals who are,
without much doubt, not unfriendly
to the railroad interests. 1t is un-
derstood that the sale or transfer in
wolves all the roads trolley holdings.
This means about 600 miles of COM
pleted trolley lines in Connecticut,
Massachusetts. Rhode Island and
New York State.
The lines in Connecticut form the
largest group, for fully seventy-f1ve
per cent of the entire street railway
system in that State belongs virtually
to the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad, including the
street railways of Hartford, Wilt
mantle, New London, New Haven,
Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwich,
not to mention numerous other
towns. In Massachusetts the hold
ings included the systems in Spring
field and Worcester, the Berkshire
Street Railway and the Worcester
and South Bridge Street Railway and
.he Worcester and Black Stone Street
Railway. These systems were held
by the Consolidated Street Railways
Company, which was owned by the
New Haven.
The transaction Is evidently the
outcome of the agitation over the So
called merger bill in the Legislature
last session. President Mellen told
the legislative committee at that time
that if the people of this State did
sot want the railroad to hold trolley
lines the railroad would bow to the
popular will.
The merger bill was defeated and
Immediately afterward Attorney
General Malone sent draft of bill
to the Legislature which he said
would operate to cause the New Ha-
ven to divest itself Of it's trolleys.
Governor Guild also sent special
message to the Legislature congratu-
lating it on the defeat of the merger
bill, and characterizing the present
railroad system in Massachusetts, as
unjust and inequitable, and saying
that the control of Massachusetts
transportation was slowly but surely
passing from Massachusetts to aliens.
The committee on street railways
thereupon recommended that the le-
gality of the New Haven's holdings
in Massachusetts, trolley systems be
tested in court.
The New Haven management pro-
tested that the trolley acquisitions in
Massachusetts, of the Consolidated
Street Railways Company had at all
times been in conformity with the
Massachusetts, laws.
New Haven, Conn. - This state
ment was made by President Mellen
at his summer, home in Stockbridge,
Mass, over the telephone to his office
here:
"The transaction involved the sale
of over seventy-five per cent. OF the
street railways of Connecticut, in
cluding systems in the cities of New
London, New Haven, Bridgeport,
Norwich, Stamford, Hartford, Will
mantle and other towns in Connecti-
cut, together with lines running into
New York State and Rhode Island
and numerous lines in Massachusetts,
including systems in the cities OF
Springfield and Worcester"