The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-06-18
GRAND rkuNK 70 BOSTON
Bio System Wants Entrance Into the
Hub

The Grand Trunk Railroad is APP
coming to Bostop as well as
to Providence. To the Rhode Island
city it will go at once. if it gets its
permit from the Massachusetts Rail-
road commission, while to this city
it will come as the next, and wholly |
logical step. This, at least is the
view held in quarters where the facts {
ought to be known.
The hearing before the Railroad /
commissioners called for tomorrow
morning over granting the Grand /
Trunk the right to construct a road
from Palmer TO the Rhode Island line
thus has larger interest for Boston
than on the face of it appears.
Railroad men regard II as manifest
destiny that the Grand Trunk should
come to Boston. Its decision to come
into New England, they say, means
gearing up to the hub of New Eng
lands wheel. II would be absurd
these observers say, for the Grand
Trunk system to work its way into
this territory, with such effort only
to connect with a second rate port
like Providence.
The Grand Trunk controls the Cen
trail Vermont. It's relations with the
Boston and Maine now the New Hav-
en-, have become so unsympathetic
that the pieces of track on the Con
necticut river line, formerly used
Jointly by the two roads, will in the
near future probably be allowed to
serve but one. The Boston and Maine
has already completed surveys for the
construction Of the two stretches Of
track there which will make It indie
pendent of the Central Vermont and
it is assumed that the latter under
Grand Trunk management will follow
suit and relieve itself of the necessity
of running over any Boston and Maine
| trackage on its way to Providence.
! Insiders say that of course the
Grand Trunk will not be content to
terminate at Providence. No official
announcement of its purposes TO come
| to Boston has yet been made nor will
any be made for some time, in any
event. The Grand Trunk is a bene-
ficiary of the Dominion Government,
and the Canadian people are some
what sensitive as to the prestige of
their tidewater ports. Canadians are
jealous of any threatened diversion
of business that might follow the
sending of Grand Trunk shipments dir
ectly into Boston.
On the principle of one thing at
/ time the Grand Trunk now has all
that It can do to Get into Providence.
While permission has been granted In
Rhode Island. under pressure Of pub
| lie sentiment, for construction from
Providence to the state line, the road
now awaits the authority of the Mas
| sachusetts Railroad commissioners
for building from Palmer in this state
down to the Rhode Island boundary.
After that the Boston problem will be
taken up.
The coming Of the Grand Trunk to
Boston would be an event of first rate
importance. Il is one of the great
railroad systems of this continent IL
has one OF the longest stretches of
double track in America in its line
from Montreal to Chicago. II Is push
ing out through the Canadian West to
Prince Rupert a new commercial city
to the far north. which will shorten by
a week, It is claimed. the journey
around the world. That city, at the
edge of Alaska is 4SS miles nearer
Yokohoma than any other Pacific port.
To bring the center OF manufacturing
New England into touch with the
great western Canadian territory now
opening up, into which 100000. immi-
grants are now going annually would
seemingly be Of great Industrial i'm.
portance. II would also restore rail-
road competition to this territory and
that by line essentially Canadian,
and so less hampered by the restric.
lions Of the interstate commerce law
The New Haven has not yet dis
closed its hand. II has generally az
fected Indifference to the project. lis
attorneys have asked the railroad
: commissioners for some delay and Il
is Likely that at the hearing tomorrow
they VII make positive objections I,
granting the Grand Trunk its permit
The report that the New Haven wa
buying up rights along the line from
Palmer TO Rhode Island. for the pur
pose of serving that territory itsel
and obstructing the Grand Trunk
plan. has been emphatically denied a
the New Haven headquarters and still
people along the route report man
incidents which seem to suggest tina
this denial may have been somewha