The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-15
Rock Island Move Opens Up
New Railway RumOrs.
MAY Build Their Own Tracks
to Pacific Soon.
REACH TUCSON AT THIS Time
Extension of Eel PasO & South
western Completed.
Rock Island Only 500 Miles
From Los Angeles Now.

The announcement today from the
general offices of the Rock Island
Lines in Topeka to the effect that this
road had completed in connection with
the Ell Paso & Southwestern a line
from Ell Paso, Tex, to Tucson, N. NJ,
causes a stir in railway circles. The
event of the Rock Island using its own
tracks from Chicago to the Pacific
coast is a matter of only a short time,
railway students predict, and it is
probable that further action will be
taken before the Panama exposition in
San Francisco.
With the Ell Paso & Southwestern
extension to Tucson, and the aban-
donment of business over the South
ern Pacific tracks from Ell Paso to
Tucson-that is, a part of the busi-
nesS-the plan of the Rock Island is
made clear. 1t is the ambition of this
transcontinental road to build to the
Pacific coast, and the recent 340-mile
step from Ell Paso to Tucson is a move
that needs little explanation.
The handling of through traffic in
both directions between st. Louis, Chi
cago, Memphis, Topeka and Kansas
City and points in Arizona and Cali
fornia by the way of the Ell Paso &
Southwestern is handled with the Rock
Island on the east and the Southern
Pacific on the west.
Rock Islands Opening.
Here is the situation under which
the Rock Island is operating:
The road under the name of the Chi
cago, Rock Island & Pacific operates
on it's own tracks more than $500 miles
of railway from Chicago on the east to
st. Louis, st. Paul, Watertown Dem
Yer, Pueblo, Galveston, Memphis,
Santa Rosa and intermediate points
The road operates a network of track
in Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma with
considerable mileage in Illinois, Mis-
~ Inv ~
Texas, Arkansas, South Dakota and
Louisiana
1t receives good eastern connections
and business at Chicago and st. Louis.
1t grasps heavy tonnage from the pros
porous northern country and it reaches
Colorado to the west as well as the
Gulf of Mexico to the south and the
Memphis business in the central south.
To the Pacific coast the Rock Island
always has depended on traffic agree
ments with the Southern Pacific. At
Santa Rosa, n. M, the road turns traf-
fic over to the Ell Paso & Southwestern
which road in turn delivers to the
Southern Pacific .at Ell Paso. The Ell
PaSo &c Southwestern and the Rock
Island are owned to a certain extent
by the same interests. The Rock Is
land business, therefore, at Santa Rosa
to Ell Paso is real Rock Island revenue.
Now comes the Phelps-Dodge extern
sion to Tucson, $40 miles west. of Ell
Paso and that distance nearer the Pa
cific coast.
The answer is that the Rock Island
through the Ell Paso S Southwestern is
gradually approaching the western
goal. Only 500 miles more and Los An
geles will be reached. Then the South
ern Pacific agreements will constitute
a probable exchange of traffic only.
The through passenger service has
been transferred to the FL Paso &
III
The Southern Pacific has granted op-
tional routing either via E. P. & S.
w. or their own line from Tucson to
FL Paso.
The transcontinental business is
reaching a true competitive basis in the
west