Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-11
Orders Are Modified.

Orders were also handed down modify
irg the commissions order of May 2 last,
requiring cars on the 14th street line of
the Capital Traction Ctmpany to be
operated on a one-minute schedule from
Ais to 6:15 o'clock in the afternoon, 50 as
to make that schedule apply between 4:15
and 5:45 pm, effective Immediately; al
Vernon and Falls Church line with a
clearance not exceeding five inches above
the rails, so as to permit the clearance to
be six inches on an empty car, until the
necessary repairs to the pavement and
changes in the grade in Potomac Park
have been made which will allow the
safe and practical operation of cars equip
ped with pilots having but a five-nch
clearance and setting forth that the word
holiday" used in orders of the COM
mission relating to schedules on any
street railway line in the District shall be
interpreted to include Saturdays after 1
O'Clock in the afternoon during the
months of July. August and September
of each year.
The decision with reference to the
equipment of trailer cars was made upon
the recommendation Of the District cleo
trio railway commission after a long
series of investigations and much discus
sion upon the subject. In its letter to the
interstate commerce commission the Dis
trict commission sets forth that subse-
quent to the adoption Of the original
| trailer order. February 1s last. the two
principal street railway corporations sub
mitted statements setting forth their OBJ
lection to the order and their plans for
| the future respecting trailers.
These statements averred. with other
things, that it was the intention of
both corporations to cease operating
trailerS after October l, 1913: that it has
been the policy for some time past to
gradually eliminate the trailer, a policy
which would be continued as rapidly as
lfp1r or f1,n
! means permit; that the Washington Rail
way and Electric Company does not
intend to extend the operation of
trailers to any other lines than those on
after October 1. 1910, will discontinue the
| tralers on regular all-day schedules on
| the 9th street and Georgetown lines and
| limit their use to tripper service and addi-
! tiOnal extra service during rush hours;
| that in the case of the Capital Traction
| Company the remOdeling of two car
barns and an increase of power plant will
be necessary before all trains now in op-
Grafton can be replaced with larger single
| equipment and that the abandonment &C
| the present double equipment, even in the
| time prescribed in the statement espe
| cially in the case of the Capital Traction
Company, the greater portion of whose
| equipment is of the single truck motor
and trailer type, would entail heavy f1nan-
| cial loss.
Previous communications received by
| the DlStrlct COMMISSION 1TONl tue railway
companies contained statements concern
| ing the cost of providing two conductors
for trailer trains and the alleged danger
| of accident resulting from a misunder-
standing of signals where two conductors
| were used.
| New Cars Ordered.
| The District commission stated it had
received advces through the daily and
| technical press that the Washington Rail-
way and Electric Company had ordered
for delivery by August 1, 1910, fifty new
double truck pay-as-you-enter cars. to re-
place the trailer trains now used on the
9th street and Georgetown lines, and also
that the Capital Traction Company was
remodeling its Georgetown car barn and
had purchased a site to erect Immediately
| thereon a new power station.
/ In summing up the situation. the Dis
| trict commission explained that after
| further investigation of the methods en-
ployed in other cities in the use of trail
ers, it had reached the conclusion that
the time should be limited in which the
single truck double equipment may be
| operated in the District, allowance being
made of reasonable period in which the
companies might secure double truck
equipment. as well as means for housing
| and the power to operate it,, and to
specify conditions under which double
truck trailers may be operated after the
expiration of that period.
| In making it's Recommendation for
bidding the use OF any but double
truck trailers on and after July 1. 1912.
and then only when separate con-
ductor is provided for each car, the
District commission refers to the many
improvements that have been made in
the street railway service of the Dis
trict since the organization Of the COM
Continued on Fifth Page)