The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-17
Persistent Planning by Trof- tlc Department to Abol- ish Defects Com
 plained Of.
SOLUTION OF MANY
 PROBLEMS IN SIGHT
Several Hundred Thousand Dollars to be Expended to Make Service
 the Best.

The apparent arrival of the summer
 season, the substitution of open electric
 cars for closed cars and the consequent
 increase in trolley travel are together
 giving the management of the Consoli-
 dated railway all they can attend to in
 the way of complaints from steady pat
 rons' The remonstrance and petition
 of citizens using cars to their summer
 homes in Woodmont filed with Presi-
 dent Mellen Saturday has been referred
 to the traffic department of the com
 pany, of which A. B. Smith is the head.
 Mir. Smith was brought here in Febru-
 ary for the express purpose of study
 Ing the service given by the Consolidat-
 ca and extending every possible remedy
 Tor things complained of. Long service
 on the Northern Pacific and Burlington
 railroads in the engineering, operating
 and traffic department fits him for the
 arduous task. MT. Smith has since his
 arrival gone all over all of the proper
 ", conferred with local officials and
 residents in each of the towns visited
 and reached the conclusion that the so-
 lution of the many problems presented
 arc in sight.
 A representative of the Journal and
 Courier in a long conversation with MT.
 smith learned much from him of his
 plans for the settlement of the service
 now complained of. In his study of the
 general condition of the property he
 found the tracks and lines in good con
 alton generally, though in some places
 additions will have to be made before
 a completely satisfactory service will
 be possible. The equipment he found
 good and well cared for; the men in
 charge of the cars he declares to be of high class, courteous in their treatment of the passengers, careful and well informed. Let any one note for himself" added MT. Smith, "the difference between the trolley service in these respects in New York and New Haven,
 Asked about the failure of the sched- ules to be better enforced. Mir. Smith said: T have had special attention given to this matter during the past four months, and while there have been many well grounded complaints, the improvement has been marked and will be better. Eternal vigilance is the price of good trolley service and New Haven shall have 1t, if I live. The diff | fcult problem to-day for street rail- l ways is the running of all cars on time. l There are thousand and one unavoid- | able reasons for delays which are un- seen by the public disturbed along the line. The smallest kind of an incident | causes delay and its effect may be far reaching In a narrow street 1t may be a wagon unloading it's goods in front of a shop or store; a broken axle or a heavy truck on the track; a public, military or circus parade; a fire neces- sitating a hose on the tracks; an open drawbridge, and so on ad minimum. It is impossible to run all cars on time, and yet in the face of these difficult ties, the New Haven system showed by actual record covering daily inspec- ,tions including an entire month that 96 per cent of the cars were on time and that only three per cent were late over three minutes"
 Asked what plans the Consolidated Railway company had for the improve ment in the service. MT. Smith spoke with pride of the proposed rail renew als on Campbell avenue, James street, Farren avenue, Congress avenue and State street. Double tracks are to be laid on Woodward avenue, on Howard avenue connecting Sylvan avenue. Lamberton street, Congress avenue and Washington streets, on Edgewood ave- nue, Whitney avenue out beyond Lake Whitney to Mt. Carmel, East Haven , and Winthrop avenue MT. Smith z spoke with interest of the new system of signs which is to be shortly intro duced by which passengers can see , from the front and side of the car its S destination. The letters will be large and at night illuminated. New feeders are to be introduced, the boiler capacity Is to be increased, new generators in- stalled and additional and closed cars added up to the limit of the local need for them. It is state unoff1cially that these im- provements will result in the expendi- lure of several hundreds of thousands, Enough the exact amount is withheld T from the public. I It is stated unoff1cially that these inn- . towards the public, MT. N Smith said: Tn addition to these par n icular pieces of work, we are doing a il ,reat deal of general work putting the f rack, power and equipment in the f test possible condition The company h 8 fully alive to the public needs and q to gratify them. The op- " rating department has its life in giv- e ng the best possible service and the b rafflc department its whole interest in lying service that all will be proud TT f. As a matter of fact, the needs of he public and the interest of the troll BY company are identical. In all mat Z' CTS affecting the public we are willing W 0 meet 1t more than half way We Il re in receptive mood and welcome tt