The Newtown bee., 1908-08-07

your petitioners railroad but more lately known as its Western Division thence on and along the line and To- cation of said last mentioned railroad in generally easterly direction to the aforementioned Hawleyville Station of your petitioner in said town of New town to a con nection with the existing line of railroad formerly of The She paug, Litchfeld and Northern Railroad Company, now of the petitioner, and lately known as the Litchfeld Branch of your petitioners railroad
 4. It is further proposed to use DOT tions of said discontinued line of rail- road at either end thereof, as a com mercial spur track for the service of certain commercial industries on said line,-one located substantially two miles sJutherly of said Hawleyville Station and one other substantially a half of a mile northerly of said Bethel Station by the installation and con struction of a spur track to said indus tries from the station nearest to the same, subject to the approval of your Board, upon application and hearing as provided by law.
 WHEREFORE, your petitioner prays your Honorable Board to approve said proposed alterations and changes as set forth above and to make such other and further orders in the premises as your Honorable Board may determine.
 Dated at New Haven, Conn.,, this 8th day of June, 1908.
 The New York. New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, by Ben- jamin I. Spock, its attorney.
 :. Upon which petition we issued the following order of notice for hearing to wit:
 State of Connecticut,
 Office of the Railroad Commissioners
 Hartford, June 25, 1908.
 Upon the foregoing petition it is or dered that the same be heard at the office of the Railroad Commissioners in Hartford, on Wednesday, July 1st, 1908, at Il o'clock a. m., and that mo- tice thereof be given to the petition CT, by Henry F. Billings, by depositing in the postofice in Hartford, postage paid, true and attested copies of said petition and of this order addressed one to John G. Parker, secretary, The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, New Haven, Conn.,. on or before the 18th day of June Inst.
 Andrew F. Gates,
 William 0. Seymour, o. R. Fyler,
 Railroad Commissioners.
 And at the time and place named in said order we met and said matter was adjourned to July 8, 1908, at the same place and hour in said order for the purpose of notifying the towns of Newtown and Bethel of the pendency of said petition and hearing.
 And on said July 8, 1908, we again met at the place and hour above named and we do find that said order had been duly complied with and that reasonable notice of the time and place of said hearing had been given to the petition CT and also to the Selectmen of the Towns of Bethel and Newtown, and the petitioner appeared to prosecute its petition and the towns of Bethel and Newtown appeared by their Select. men and Counsel. and the Bethel anc Bedding Lime Company also appeared and said parties were fully and finally heard on said last mentioned date.
 This is an application for the elimina' tion of sixteen grade crossings, in the distance of six miles, on the line ot the Bethel Branch, so-called. of the railroad of the petitioner, extending from the Bethel Station, in the towr of Bethel, to the HawleyvilIe Station, in the town of Newtown, by discon. tinuing the use of the Bethel Brancf and transferring its traffic to the mair line of the Danbury Branch from Beth el to Danbury, and from Danbury tt Hawlelyville, over the double track o1 the New England Railroad Company leased to the petitioner.
 Upon careful consideration of tn evidence, and from our personal knowl edge of the locality affected by tn proposed changes we are of opinion that public safety requires that tn grade crossings specified in the petition be eliminated and in the manner pro posed. Owing to the relatively littl importance of this Branch it is unlike ly that the petitioner will ever be abl to assume the enormous expense o eliminating these crossings by separat ing the grades of the railroad and tn highways, and it is more unlikely tha the towns in which the crossings ar located could ever assume their statl tory share of the expense which wouI fall on them in proceedings initiate . by them for the removal of these eros 7 ings. . f The traffic now passing over u @ steep grades and sharp curves of u e Bethel Branch can be more safely co V ducted over the easy grades and curv ' of the proposed route. There being IF