Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-06-14
HAS STEPLESS CARS |
viii Save Gothamites 125.OOO
Miles a Year in Steps
Governor of New York Expected 10
Sign Bill Doing Away With the
Ancient Type-OId Horse
Cars Are Doomed.

New York.-By the introduction or
4 new style of street car tho New
York Railways company is about tn
save the good people of this city
an annual climb from the level ~
the street of I25.0O0 miles a year. and
descent to the street Of exactly the
same length. 1t has come about
through its engineers recognizing
that it was ridiculous TO make their
passengers continue every time they
boarded street car to climb above
all the machinery and that little in
genuity would enable them To de
sign a car with practically no climb
ing at all
Once the figures are given anyone
can verify this calculation for him.
self In the year ended June 80, 1912.
the New York Railways company and
It's predecessor the Metropolitan
street Railway company, carried lust
under 264,O00,00O passengers. The
height of tho step of the so-Called
stepless car from the street Ia ten
inches and the height of the old-style
car, which il is to replace. is about
40 inches. Consequently there Is "A
saving of 50 inches every time a
passenger gets on or off the car. and
this works out at I25. 900 miles year
for the entire system.
The double decked stepiess car.
which bears SO strong a family re
scmblance to the other new style of
car, will continue. however for some
time alone in it's glory.
II was only after considering care
fully the many different brands Of
street car In use In other cities that
the New York Railways company
evolved the side door stepless. prepay
ment car Montreal. for example. has
side-doOr. prepayment car. and Phil
adelphia prides itself on It's near side
car The latter was inspired by the
desire to provide room for more pas
sengers and to enable them to enter
would encounter as little as possible
Of the mud of the street
While the newest thing i'm street
cars Ia being installed in New York,
the oldest Ia about to be abandoned
New York has for several years been
tain horse cars. In some instances
this was necessary because OF con
gested traffic. but new subways have
relieved this TO such an extent that
electric power now Is practical
Governor Sulzer now has under con-
sideration a bill requiring all street
car companies of the city to cease op-
Grating horse cars after January
next. This measure has passed the
Legislature. and II accepted by the
govc rnor. will affect six lines iD- Man
haitian. but even without this legisla-
tiot II Is probable that In few
months the last OF the old horse cars
will have been driven to the barns.
never to run again.
When the public service commission
took Office on July /. 1907, there were
16 horse-car lines in operation. or
these four have been abandoned and
six are now wholly or partially oper-
ated by storage battery cars. The
six still running are the Avenue G
line. from the Desbrosses street ferry
across town to East Twenty fourth
street. the Bleecker street line. from
Blocker street and Broadway to
Fourteenth street and Ninth avenue:
the Chambers street line. FROM Cham
bers street ferry to Grand street ferry:
tn Metropolitan cross-town line. from
Desbrosses street ferry to Grand
street ferry: the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth streets line. from Broad
way to the Twenty-third street ferry,
and the Sixth avenue Desbrosses
street ferry line. from Sixth avenue
and Third street to the Desbosses
street ferry.