The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-21
GRAFT TIDE TURNING BACK.
PHILADELPHIA RECEIVERS FRAN
CHTSES WORTH MILLIONS.

-
Cincinnati ResalnS 500 900 In Cash Paid
rs Bonuses by Bank to Public Oficlais
quaker City IsSOontO Have Com"
petition I'm Its Street Railway Service.
PHILADELPHIA, March 2o,-The terms
of capitulation of the Philadelphia Rapid
Transit Company, which for more than
ten years has enjoyed a monopoly OF all
street railway privileges in Philadelphia.
are now in the hands of counsel for the ofty
and the company being whipped into legal
shape.
Caught in a tran that menaoed its very
existence, with the Philadelphia and Wes-
tern Railway Company at the city line as
an active competitor and with no com
plaoent councils or political leaders to fall
back upon, the Transit Company has given
up some of it's most valuable franchlses
and has opened the doors, perforce, to Its
competitor.
Resides that, 1t has given George Gould
his opportunity to reach tidewater, lot no
one doubts that he is the real force behind
the Philadelphia and Western, and thus
has thrown the doors open to railroad COM
petition in Philadelphia.
This transit revolution, which is even
more important to the city than was the
political upheaval Of May, has come about
through the franchises which the Philadel-
phia Rapid Transit bought from the indie
pendent street car companies at the time
| Of the merger in 1903. These franchises gave
| the right to construct underground, sur
face and elevated lines on Utmost every
street in Phila delphia.
There were time limits to them, and for
go. 70 49, ~ mot nnTnA
piled with, but with councils and the ad-
..linistration under control these condi-
lions need not be noticed-they could
always be extended.
The Market street subway was to be
finished in three years. Extension after
extension was granted and work went on
leisurely. The last extension OF time ex-
pires this April. Unless another extension
IL granted, this franchise and Others expire.
The political revolution swept away the
support the Rapid Transit Company had
depended upon, and this week 1t faced the
veto of the subway extension, saw the
Philadelphia and Western throw on It's
mask, and awoke with q bump.
To save itself from ruin the Rapid
Transit Company to-day gave an astonish-
ing example of self sacrifice. 1t agrees to
complete within three years, a subway
under Market street, from Fifteenth street
| 10 IHt Flaws St''sy
Broad street, from Walnut north TO
the end of the opened street: a subway
under Walnut street, from Broad to Firth,
under Fifth street to Arch, and under
Arch street to Broad: an elevated road
from South street and Delaware avenue
to Frankford.
1t surrenders the following franchises:
For a subway under Chestnut street-thus
clearing the way for the Philadelphia and
Westerns proposed line; for surface lines
On ppoaI atTpot-th1l9 removing Tor all
time the danger that that thoroughfares
will be disfgured by tracks; for elevated
railroads in Ridge avenue, Passypnk
avenue and Germantown a~venue-thus
the way for future competitions; for
more and Woodland avenues, in West
Philadelphia, all Of which were to be con-
Meeting links with the Market street ele-
waited, but which will nov, go to the Phlla-
delphia and Western and will give that
companv full hand in the western and
southwestern sections Of the city,
The agreement covering all this was
formally executed this morning at the
meeting in the Mayors office between
officials of the city and the Rapid Transit
Company.
The transit company undertakes to COM
mence construction OF the Broad street
stlbvay at once. The least estimate on
this work places the cost at $24 ,000, 900.
The loop" subway from Broad street,
under Walnut to Fifth street, thence to
Arch street and then west to Broad street
will cost about 81, 900, 900.
Completion of the Market street subway
elevated line will cost not less than SIS 900 900
beyond what has been already expended.
All the franchises vacated by the Rapid
Transit Company will be taken up by the
Philadelphia and Western, whose tracks
now run from Parkersburg, Pa, to Sixty
third and Market street. Fifty miles away
from Parkersburg at Hanover, Pa, runs
the Western Maryland, a Wabash con-
nection.