The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-01-03
1nterurban to Give
No High Class Service
Nunninf TINE Gilbert to Hibbint to be
One Hour and so Minutes-Five ~Stops
1neiudint Waitint Room Throuth Built
Up Part of VireiniA-Fu1l Hourly Ser.
vice to Commence Soon-NAturL 10
Suppose Line VIII he Extended In 1919

= When the full service is being rem
dered by the Mesaba Railway COM
pany it is intended that the passen-
ger cars shall make the trip from
Gilbert to Hibbing-35 miles in one
hour and so minutes. This will bel
at an average speed over the line of
about II miles an hour, including
stops, and will be one-half faster
than the service rendered during the
first weeks of the operation of the
cars. Henry S. Newton, superin-
tendent Of the new electric road. de-
slres that the public shall not Judge
the kind of service the road will
give by what has been given at the
start, as the company has been
greatly handicapped both by the non-
arrival of the all-passenger cars and
by various small things that neeed
adjustment. In an Interview yes
terday Mr.. Newton said:
I'VE want to render service
eventually that will be satisfactory,
not only to the patrons of the road,
but to the management, and we
know what good service is, having
operated thoroughly modern roads
in New England. We have started
with service from Gilbert to Buhl
on a two-hour schedule. When the
road is fully open we will make the
whole distance from Gilbert to Hib-
bing in one hour and SO minutes.
We hope to be operating clear
through in less than thirty days, but
that depends entirely on the COM
pletion of the electrical. work. The
Western Construction company,
which built the road, that is bed
and the rail work, also the buildings,
is practically through with its work,
but the Cleveland Construction COM
pany, which has the electrical and
wire contract, will not have finished
for some little time yet.
"One thing we are working out
now is the number of stops the cars
shall make in each town. OF course
this is an interurban line and is not
designed for city service. It will be
entirely impractical to make stops
at every street crossing in Virginia
and stlle other towns, but We shall
have designated streets to stop at
with numbered stations and the pas
sengers who want to get off before
the waiting room station is reached
| can advise the conductor, giving the
number of the stop or the name Of
, the street.
I'm Duluth l understand the city
street cars make an average speed
of about nine miles an hour. We
propose to make through Virginia
about IL miles an hour. We shall
probably have five stops with signs
Cars Stop Here" between the Bal
ley Mill and where the road crosses
the Missabe tracks. That will give
an equitable service to the city peo'
ple and not interfere greatly with
the service for those who are trav
cling through.
Il would have greatly preferred
to have had out all big passenger
cars here first, but what We did re
ceive first was the all-baggage cars
which we could not use at all. Thel
next came the combined passenge
and baggage cars and the all-passen
ger cars are getting here last
: When asked the question as t.
: what the road proposed to do in re
!: gard to extensions eventually, MI
, Newton said that had not been givel
; any attention, but that it would b
the logical thing to do to build ex
: tensions to the towns east of Gil
bert and also west in the direction
of Grand Rapids.