The San Francisco call., 1907-02-04
STILL PROMISING
! BETTER SERVICE
Chapman Tells What United
Railroads Is Doing to
Relieve the Congestion
ONE LONG BLOCKADE

streetcar will partake of any of the
/ joys of a journey in an auto built for
two. the patient straphanger is taking
heart at the interest of the Grand Jury
/ in better transportation and the prom
/ ises of General Manager Chapman are
not without hope of fulf1llment. Chap
man told yesterday of some of the
! things the United Railroads is doing
and expects to do for better service,
and he suggested some ways by which
| the passenger can assist in relieving
the congestion. Signs are now being
printed requesting passenger to leave
cars by way of the front door and enter
by the rear. If this simple rule is OBJ
served, lots of crushing will be OBJ
/ waited.
1t is announced that next Wednes-
day the company expects to have the
!. tracks finished on Valencia street upon
which route the San Mateo suburban
\ cars will be operated down Valencia
street to Market, with the terminal at
I Fifth and Market streets hereto
fore. On the same day, says Chapman
! the Mission street cars will be operated
from Fourteenth to Fifth streets by
way of Fourteenth and Howard streets
to Fifth and Mission streets to permit
of the reconstruction of the inbound
] tracks between Fifth and Fourteenth
! streets.
SOME PROMISES FULFILLED
Speaking of what has already been
accomplished in the way of improve
ments of the service, Manager Chap
| man said:
we promised extra inspectors, and
we have put them on, and an emer-
j gency crew besides;. we promised flag
men and ignalmen-they are at work !;
we promised extra conductors-they
are working on the Fillmore street
| line, and we are hiring more; we prom
| ised immediate restoration of the
| street-we have forces of men working
on night and day shifts putting the
streets in good condition. We have put
an owl service on the Suffers street line
and are improving the owl service on
other lines. Our cars are kept clear
| to schedule time, and altogether, short
age of cars alone excepted, the service
4 is in much better condition"
| Manager Chapman says that the
| the United Railroads employment bu-
reau at Turk and Fillmore streets is
open every day for applicants. 1t will
not be necessary for extra conductors
to purchase uniform. A cap will be
necessary, however. Inexperienced boys
are not wanted. but bright, intelligent
young men will be accepted, even
though working elsewhere, and might
earn additional money working odd
| hours.
NEW CARS COMING
/ I'VE have five shipments of cars now
under way" said Chapman, and re-
ceive teIegraphic advices daily as to
| their whereabouts. These cars will be-
| gin to arrive tomorrow. AS they are
put in the service traffic will be greatly
relieved. Tho present storm has caused
great deal of difficulty in keeping
some of our lines open, especially on
| Kentucky street and West Twenty
fourth street. We have large gang
of men at work night and day over
the entire system taking care of the
| storm waters and sand washes. Nat
| urally the storm has delayed repairs
and interfered with car operations.
TRAFFIC TIED UP
The United Railroads added mate
rally last night to the entertainment
of the travelling public by providing
a pageant of cars on Market street,
stretching from the junction of Sutter
and Market back to O'FarrelI street.
| There were just forty-one cars in the
procession at 9 o'clock, and the parade
had been over thirty minute in as
sembling. There were dilapidated
Hayes-street cars; McAllister was rep
resented by some specimens of a for
mer epoch in car building; Masonic
avenue had a representation of unvar-
| nished beauties, and Eddy street sup
piled it's quota of antiquated trolley
coaches. Only one criticism could be
urged against the procession: 1t did
not move. For nearly an hour the line
stood there, constantly augmented by
other cars, which modestly took their
places at the rear, until the string
reached nearly to Fourth street.
The pageant was entirely unpremedi-
tated. but not altogether unexpected.
Eastbound Hayes and Masonic avenue
car No. 1909 expired at Sutter street
| It's feeble life f1ickered out and it died
| The workmen sent on wrecking car O803
said that one of the locations" had
/ dropped out, but the bystanders claimed
| the car had more definite location than
| was good for it. At any rate it stopped
short just few feet west of where
| the Sutter-street line curves into Mar
ket. The latter line was thus able to
keep on going, and passed the process
sion up.
/ DRAGGED IN THE MUD
To further provide diversion for the
passengers who passed by the long line
OF cars and walked to the ferry Joseph
Mallory, while attempting to board a
Sutter-street car at Market, just at
| the head of the procession of cars was
dragged several feet and then dropped
oozily into the soft mud He was a
sight but was not hurt. and muttering
imprecations against he nervous con-
ducor who could not wait long enough
! for him to board the car, disappeared
around the corner, there to scrape him
self as clean as possible.
| At 9:20 o'clock the weary Hayes
street car. No. 1909, was prodded into
nat-wheeled activity again and the line
was once more in full operation.
F.. Mcdonald, living at Twentieth
street and Potrero avenue, was thrown
violently to the ground while attempt
ing to board car 729 of the Kearny and
Clay streets line at Montgomery ave-
nue. yesterday evening The car start
ed as he stepped on, and in the fall he
sustained severe lacerations of the
head and face and a possible fracture
of &l,A sfr11i1 Ea mas rennouad "a tha