Evening star., 1925-09-13
STREET CARS HERE
KEEP T0SCHEDULE
Companies Busses Make
Better Time Than Required,
Survey Shows.


Scheduled speed is maintained on
the street car lines of the District,
the engineering firm Of Mcclellan &
JunkersfeId declared yesterday in
submitting to the Utilities Commits
sion the third and fourth sections of
its report on the transportation prob
lens of the city.
The third section is a resume of
actual operating conditions, such as
schedules. time required for stops,
routing of cars and difficulties which
go with the underground current sys
tenn.
The fourth section is a detailed de-
scription of the power plant facilities
of the Potomac Electric Power Com
pany and of the Capital Traction Com
pany, supplying the current for the
street cars.
Needs to Be Studied.
This fact-fnding survey was un-
dertaken by McClellen & Junkersfeld
five months ago at the expense of the
North American Company of New
York, and when all sections of the re
be studied with a view to determining
the transportation needs of the Dis
trict and the possible results of q
merger.
After setting forth tables showing
the relation between schedules and
observed running time, the engineers
made the following general state
mnt:
The tables indicate that scheduled
speed is maintained on the car lines
operating within the District of Co
lumbia of both railway companies.
While individual lines vary slightly
from their schedules, operation as a
whole is fairly consistent. The bus
lines of both railway companies make
better speed than the schedule re-
Quires.''
Shows Car Density.
The report also reveals the stretch
of trackage for each system over
which the greatest car density occurs
For the Capital Traction Company
it is Pennsylvania avenue between
Fifteenth street and Peace Monu-
ment, with los cars per hour west
bound and 96 cars per hour eastbound.
For the Washington Railway and
Electric Company it is Fourteenth
street between F and G. streets, with
cars per hour northbound during the
hour of maximum density.
Another interesting feature of this
section of the report is the statement
that the average duration of a car
stop in Washington is 261 seconds,
of which 21.3 seconds is used up by
passengers and 4.S seconds for de-
lays due to other causes.
T-,dar1rn,,na Turropt uas Eo,,I@s
The engineers give a detailed de-
scription of the underground system
of supplying current to street cars
within the city limits and conclude
that while it is desirable in con-
tributing to the appearance of the
National Capital, it presents operat-
ing difficulties, such as the pulling"
of plows, the stranding of cars on
dead spots, which must exist in the
rail at crossings and switches, and
delays due to the expansion of the
slot in extremely hot weather. They
also emphasize the increased cost of
underground current as compared
with the overhead trolly system.
This section of the transportation
report contains an analysis of all
accidents in which street cars and
busses were involved during the IL
months ended May 81. which showed
that, from street railway records,
January was the worst month for
accidents. One-sixth of the acci-
dents for the year occurred in that
month.
Peak Traffic in Evening.
The report further shows that the
peak of vehicular traffic occurs be-
tween 430 and $50 pm, when 10
per cent of the total vehicle flow
for the day passes into and out of
the central portion of the city.
Discussing the speed of operation
of street car service, the report
states:
The average speed over a line
depends on the free running speed
of the equipment, the amount of
vehicular interference, the number of
stops made and the length of each
stop. In order to compare actual
running time with scheduled running
time, checks were made by observ-
ers riding cars and busses. These
observers recorded the actual time
at time points and the number of
stops made between time points"
An accompanying table shows the
results of these observations for both
companies.
After making similar observations
Continued on Page 4, Column 2.)