Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-12-11
CAR SERVICE
PLANS POPULAR
Contemplated Loops and Ex-
tensions Meet With
Favor.
LONG VIEW IN PARTICULAR
Gap There Which the Company Is
Obligated to Put in-other
improvements.

r ROo~4 oSAOCS railway SAI6llSIOnS III
last evenings Argus. are meeting with
popular favor. Rock Island is grow
Ing and the need of street car accom-
modations reaching portions of the
L city not traversed by the Tri-City
Railway company's lines is impera-
lively demanded. Both Davenport and
Moline have received concessions
I since additional extensions have been
made in Rock Island. Tracks have al
+ ready been laid in Davenport. running
3 into territory not nearly as thickly
populated as the parts of Rock Island
Z where better facilities are desired,
+ and Moline has just completed ar
s engagements with the local company
I that will insure to that city early the
+ coming year, car service where not
: now enjoyed.
Rock Island Has Been Friendly.
Rock Island has been friendly TO
/ the tri-city system No request that
+ the company has ever made for fran
Z chises here has been refused. Indeed
1 this has always been the first Of the
+ three cities and the most prompt to
{ grant privileges to the corporation,
and in many Instances rights which
were essential to the company's pros
perity. Now that the people are +
come asking for better service, the
company cannot afford to ignore the
requests particularly where 1t has
granted extensions in the neighbor-
ing cities that have not failed 20
make known their wants and to have
them respected
The contemplated loops in the west
and the east ends, while possibly sub
iect to some modification, are, taken
as a whole, necessary to accommodate
the working people in both ends of
town, the one running to the extreme
end of the factory district down town,
and the other supplying a bluff terri
tory and bringing the people in direct
touch with the new factory territory
east of Fortieth street and likewise
the direct line to the Rock Island Ar
senal
Long View an Obligation.
AS far as the completion of the Long
View Loop is concerned, the duty in
cumbent upon the company is one
that cannot be further ignored by it
without subjecCing itself to the charge
of deliberate breach of faith with the
city and with the public. The obliga-
tion is one that came to the present
company as a legacy from the former
holding company II was a condition
when the right of way was secured for
the Long View line that it should be
q loop line and that in the near future
the gap between Twenty-fifth street
and Ninth avenue and the junction
with the Elm street line at Fourteenth
avenue should be filed Under no
other condition or circumstance would
the old company have gone to the eX-
pense of laying tracks through the ten
blocks extending along Eighth avenue
/ from Twentieth to Elm and north on
the latter thoroughfare to Fourteenth
avenue 1t was left as an fncompleted
piece of work to be made whole as
soon as the surveys could be made up
/ Twenty-ffth street Had the old cor
/ poration remained in possession of the
property the extension would have
been made long ago. in conformity
with it's pledge and in keeping both
with its promise and its established
practice of keeping its pledges to the
public It is not to be doubted, there
fore. that the present Tri-City Railway
company will do what is expected Of
it. basing the opinion, first. upon its
obligation, secondly, upon what has
been its declaration of purpose and its
disposition so far, and thirdly, in view
OF what it has done for the cities NJ
Davenport and Moline
Line Is n Joke Now.
The putting in of the gap in the
Long View line will bring that branch
of the system up to the general ex-
cellence of the other lines on this side |
of the river in the matter OF the main |
tenance of a schedule. The trouble |
on the Long View line now is due to |
the heavy pull on the west south
bound cars during the rush hours This |
results in delays that throw the en- |
tire time card out and make the entire |
service unreliable from $50 on each |
evening, the people on the east as well |
as the west side suffering in conse-
quence. During the evenings the ser
: vice is joke. 1t is a hit and miss
game as far as the cars are concerned.
They dash from one end of the line
to the other throughout the evening.
Patrons do not know when to expect
cars and the cars pay no attention to
passengers, unless hey are standing in
the middle of the track. 1t Is simply
a mad rush on the part of the men in
charge of the cars to get back near, the
schedule time. and as rule the cars
are from ten to fifteen minutes OF, and
sometimes a whole trip.
With the completion of the east side
of the line, a large part of the traffic
that now packs the west south bound
cars would be carried by the east
bound cars, as people now residing 4
south of Ninth avenue in the territory
between Twentieth and Twenty-f1rst
streets would be as well served by Il
taking a car going east as well as by Il
one going west. 1t would be a trife
further around, but hardly enough TO
make much difference on a Wen main
tanned rapid transit schedule. In fact