The San Francisco call., 1907-01-22
Long Tie-Ups and
Broken Time
Schedules
Calhoun and His
Assistant Far
From Scene

From Scene
ait is the intention OF the United
Railroads to give the people OF san
Francisco the best car service In the
world. We are spending s1.5Oo.OOO for
new equipment. IN the meantime we
viii keep up the roads and meet all
demands the public may make upon u.s.
l-ThornweH Mutually Gin Interview last
AuEust).
s'The people will have a perfect car
service in san Francisco by the hrst
of the year."-Patrick Calhoun.
Schedules on the United Railroads
were thrown to the wind yesterday and
very unfavorable wind it was for
the public. There was tieup after tieup
and nearly every line in the city. with
the exception of the cable roads. was
running on a broken schedule before
the noon hour had arrived BY even
ing everything was going wrons and
the cars were punched in such man
ner as to aggravate the congestion that
every minute was witnessed at the
ferry loop and at the switching points
in the busy sections OF the city.
To be a straphanger under the cir
cumstances was deemed a privilege.
The safeguard hangers and fender
hangers were in the majority. and IL
was generally remarked among the
harassed patrons of the Calhoun lines
that the day was the worst from a
car transportation point of view since
the great fire.
HAIGHT-sTREET SERVICE JERKY
The Fillmore-street line was among
the first to get full of trolley kinks
and it was all that the repafr-car crew
could do to keep the sagsing overheads
from coming down altogether and tying
up the entire system. Haight street.
boasted "one of the finest electric roads
in the world" got off on the wrong
schedule during the morning and kept
up a jerk-water effort at serving the
public for the rest of the day The
steep grade on Haight street between
Market and Buchanan was too much
for this latest creation of the Calhoun
corporation, and the painful efforts OF
the cars to overcome the laws of gravi-
tation and stand on end and mount at
an angle of forty-five degrees was
amusing to every one but the safeguard
hangers who had paid their nickels to
ride and a chance to break their necks.
The morning Haight-street cars took
from forty to ffty-fve minutes to
make the trip to the ferries from stein
er street-this by actual timing The
Haight-street line has not been able
to keep on schedule time since the road
commenced operations. The average
loss Of time is two trips in nine. the
carmen finding 1t impossible to make
the schedule on account of loss of time
on the hills. both going down and
coming up grade. Extreme care is
used on the down grades; in fact. more
care is necessary on the down grades
than on the climb up the inelines.
The expected happened at o'clock.
when a decrepit car of the Castro-street
line broke down and blocked the Castro
and Fillmore streets lines which had
just recovered from a bad jolt at the
Turk-street barns caused by the lead
wires running into the carhouse bowing
like kitestrings and threatening death
to the passing throng- Passengers IN
hundreds. stalled at Castro and Four
teenth. spoke feelingly of Thornweu
Mullallys pink tea excursion to Mexico
and Calkoun's sojourn in the South.
and even passed few uncomplimen-
tary remarks about General Manager
Chapman. who would. however. do bet
ter IL his absent bosses would let him
CARS RUN IN FLOcKs
While these inconvenience for the
trolley-ridden public were being handed
out to the people of the western section
of the city. sutter street was operating
a string of it's brand new Chicago ears.
fifty feet apart. about ten in number.
on the north side OF the track. while on
the south side, from Cough to Kearny.
there was smooth running with no
car to obstruct the view or give en-
couragement to the several hundred
persons waiting at Van Ness avenue.
Polk. Larkin. Kearny and elsewhere
down the line. When the belated east
bound car did arrive it was decorated
in front with the sign Take next car"
but the next car" like tomorrow.
never came-cause. another tieup at
Fillmore street.
The yalencia-street district would