Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-18
MILLIONS TO
BE SPENT BY
CAR COMPANY
LOS ANGELES-PAClFlC PLANS
VAST IMPROVEMENTS
WILL SET 1000 MEN TO WORK
MONDAY
Subway to Be Built and Plan Is to
Make Playa del Rey Greatest
Pleasure Resort on the
Pacific Coast

Between 1000 and 1900 men will be
placed at work broad gauging all lines of
the Los Angeles-Pacifc Monday morning.
Subways will be constructed, cutting the
running time between Los Angeles and
Venice i'm half
The Hill street tunnel will be rushed to
completion.
Playa del Rey will be built and improved
until it Is made the most popular and up
to-date resort the Pacific coast
All plans are ready and rights of way
have been secured for tracks between
this city and the beach.
Efforts will be made by the street railway
officials to break the contract which for
more than six years is understood to have
existed between that company and Abbot
Kinney, whereby the doge of Venice re-
ceives ten cents on every ticket sold be-
tween Los Angeles and Venice over the
lines of the Los Angeles-Pacifc.
The running time between Los Angeles
and Plala del Rey will be cut In half, and
the most modern and up-to-date coaches
will be placed in service.
These are few of the improvements
decided on by the officials of the Los
Angeles-Pacific company, and instruc-
tions have been given to engage the
men necessary to start the work next
week.
More than 1000 men will be necessary
to start the work of broad gauging
the tracks, which has been contem-
plated for more than two years and
these men will be set to work without
more delay.
The long discussed subways will at
last become reality and through
them the company's officials expect to
decrease the running time to Playa del
Rey to a little more than fifteen min
utes. At present 1t Is about thirty
five minutes.
A modern hotel, the superior of any
a the beach resorts in Southern Cali
fornia, will be erected at the top of the
hill at Playa del Rey, while magnifi-
cent dancing pavilion, recreation hail.
picnic and sun parlors will also be
built.
A midway will be built. which, it is
said, will be far superior to any i'll
this vicinity, while a theater, large
enough to accommodate the best and
largest opera companies, will also be
built.
The officials of the street car COM
pany own the greater portion of the
beach resort and, .fter several years
of discussion, have at. last decided to
start the work of upbuilding and carry
it on to a successful finish
Officials Adopt Plan
1t is claimed by those familiar with
the intentions of the men back of the
movement that one of the principal
things which prompted them to take
up the work with renewed vigor is
their wish to break a contract they
are said to have had with Abbot Kin
ney. the founder and builder of Ven
ice since he began laying out the
famous resort.
Soon after Kinney began laying
plans for the building of Venice, he
tried to reach some agreement with
the street car company, whereby the
fare to the beach would be lowered.
This agreement the officials are said
10 have refused to make and Kinney,
without their knowledge, then set
agents to work and secured rfghts-of-
way for a line paralleling the tracks
of the Los Angeles-Pacific, but reduc-
ing the distance between Venice and
Los Angeles.
Kinney also contracted for cars, ties,
rails and other necessary equipment
and set men to work building line
between the beach and this city. He
then announced the running time would
be reduced greatly and that tickets
would be sold for less than the Los
Angeles-Pacifc would dispose of them
for.
Agents of the street car company
then visited Kinney and soon work on
the new line was called off. 1t was
then said Kinney and the street car
officials had reached an agreement,
but what this agreement was neither
side would make public.
1t gradually leaked out, however,
that the contract signed between the
street car company and ADoot hihney
was that the former should pay lne
latter ten cents on every round-trlp
ticket sold between the town of the
doge and Los Angeles. The company
also agreed to pay Kinney a large sum
of money for his cars, rights anu
equipment and also reimburse him Tor
all expense he had been put to.
Since that time the officials of the
company are said to have regretted
making the deal, and it has frequently
been announced efforts would be made
to .have the contract set aside.
Kinney has steadfastly refused 10
allow any changes to be made in the
contract and for this reason the rate
of fifty cents per round trip to the
beach points has been upheld by the
street railway.
When requested by commercial
bodies of different coast towns to re-
duce the rate the officials have always
replied 1t would be unfair to reduce
the fare to one and not all and that it
was impossible to lower the fare to
each point. 1t is claimed Venice and
Kinney's contract was the stumbling
block in the way of having the fares
reduced.
Wish to Break Contract
Some time ago the managers of the
street car company are said to have
decided to try and lower Kinneys
profits, and as result tickets to Santa
Monica, fourteen blocks further west
have been sold customers whenever
possible.
This move did not meet with Kin
neys approval and he is said to have
complained bitterly of the action and
to have threatened to resort to the
courts. His contract is said to be iron
bound and attorneys for the street ear
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