Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-11
STREET. CAR SERVICE
Washington Compared Favor
ably With New York.
GREAT PROBLEM IN GOTHAM
New Subway Has Not Relieved the
Congestion.
SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS
Remarkable Situation of the Car
Building Companies-Taxed to
Their Capacity With Work.

By WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
NEW YORK, February Q, 1907.
If Representative Madden and other gen.
tlemen who interesting themselves in
the improvement of the street car
service in Washington would come over to
New York for a while they would discover
that the transportation facilities in Wash
ington are not so bad as they might be.
, Chicago enjoys the reputation of having the
worst street service in the world which
is due, of course. to the unsettled relations
| between the companies and the city gov
eminent and the agita ton of municipal
ownership. In New York the street car
service is almost as bad as it is in Chicago
and that of Washington Is perfect in COM
parison. l have never seen any city in the
world. except perhaps Vienna and Buda-
pest, with better street car service than
we have in Washington. and if the people
of the District of Columbia who do not own
motor cars or ride about in carriages would
spend month in New York or Chi
cage they would appreciate the advantages
they enjoy at home.
During the recent snowstorm the surface
car service of New York has been more
delayed and demoraized than l have ever
known it to be in Washington. and even in
the most comfortable weather the cars are
so crowded that. except At three or four
hours in the middle of the day, that no one
ever expects to get seat
New York Service insufficient.
| Notwithstanding the new subway. which
carries millions of people underground.
| there seems to be no Improvement. Passen-
I gers crowd the cars to overlooking during
| the morning and evening hours and fill
| q elevated
| trains and the surface not only appear
! to carry the same number of passengers as
! formerly. but the figures in the reports of
| the managers show that they carry more
| than before the subway was built The
growth of the city has been so rapid that
| the subway has simply taken care of the
increase. without relieving the congestion
on the elevated trains and the surface cars.
The subway is used chiefly for long rides
| and the elevated trains for those portions
of the city which the subway does not
reach, while the surface cars are utilized
for short distances and the loads of passen-
/ gers entirely changed almost every
mile.
There are 1850 surface cars running
every day, an increase from 1925 a year
ago. and the superintendent tells me that
they expect to put on 400 additional cars
this year, as fast as they can get them;
but the shops of all the car companies,
| working night and day. are not able to
| fill one-half of the contracts they have
undertaken That seems to be the secret
/ OF the car shortage everywhere. Line OF
| fetal returns from thirty eight railway
| car. building companies in North America
| show that during the year 1905 they
| turned out and delivered for use to th6'
railway companies. 243, 679 eaps, OF, swh fch 4
I1,219 were. for export; .The remainder
are now in use in the United States, and
yet there is the complaint of a shortage
of cars from every part of the country.
This in an increase of 40 per cent over
the number of cars constructed in the
year 1895 and two and one-half times as
many as were constructed in 1904. -
Factory Contracts Two Years Ahead.
AT the present moment every car fac
| tory in the United States is running to
| it's full capacity and delivering cars as
fast as they can be made. No manufac-
| turer will take an order for delivery
| within twelve months; most contracts
say eighteen months and two years:
| Last summer a well-known American
| commission merchant whom I met in
| Russia, told me that he had large con-
| tracts with the Russian government for
railway cars and street cars, which he
| had placed in France and Belgium. And
| he remarked that he expected to be Sc
| verely criticised for not placing them in
| the United States. IF you hear any such
explain to the American public that 1 did
not give the order until had applied in
| vain to every car company in the United
States and not one of them would agree
| to deliver a wheel within two years
| Some of them declined to consider any
| proposition, and several ignored my let
| tiers altogether.
| OF the output of American railway cars
during 1896 there were 240, 503 for freight
service and 3,167 for passenger service
This does not include electric street cars,
| of which about half as many were turned
| out during the year.
| Locomotive building was quite as phe-
| nomenal During the year 1906 the twelve
| locomotive works of the United States
4 md q dn nod OF
| motives (of which 720 were exported),
237 electric locomotives and 292 COM
pounds. against 5,491 steam 140 cleo
| trio and 10 compound in 1905. This out
put absorbed the entire capacity of the
manufacturing plants Of America.
A Study for Washingtonians.
| People who are dissatisfied with the
| street car service of Washington should
| endeavor to take trip from the city
| hall in New York over to Brooklyn be-
| tween 4 and o'clock in the afternoon
| or try the reverse journey between and
! 10 O'Clock in the morning. The .conges-
tion at the Brooklyn bridge is simply in
tolerable, and is growing worse instead
of better, notwithstanding the improve
ment in the ferry system and the con-
struction of a second bridge two miles up
the river. The latter is already crowded
and 1t does not seem to make the slight
est bit of difference. Every night at the
close OF business hours nundred thou
sand people or more enter the approaches
to the Brooklyn bridge and make a deS-
perate struggle for a chance to get home.
Three hundred trolley cars pass each way
over the bridge every hour. which is five
cars minute, and they run in trains of
three or four cars The ordinary capacity
| of each car Is seventy-five passengers.
| but they are jammed SO closely that they
often carry twice that many. The Will
liamsburg bridge, which was recently
| completed, handles 184 cars an hour, and
they are also filled, although the jam is
not so great there at the old bridge.
The Williamsburg bridge cannot do any
thing more to relieve the congestion until
additional connections are made with
down town The elevated and surface
railroads are now building additional
loops.
The city has bought another block of
ground on the New York side of the
Brooklyn bridge and will extend the ter
minals SO that the crowd will have twice
as much room to operate In and ten or