Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-02
Answers Mr.. Aliens Letter
As to Street Railways
To the Editor Of The star:

10 tne kuttoT OF me Stef.
Mr.. Howard G. Aliens survey Of the
street car lines has many points Of
interest to one who is closely Acquainted
with street railway systems In the
United States. Magazines such as the
Electric Railway Journal and Electric
Traction fail to show that there are
any street ear companies in the United
States where the fare is much lower
than that In the District. It Is unfair
and futile to compare the street rail-
ways O. the District with these Of
New York City, or even Philadelphia,
in which subway. elevated and the size
of the city make such comparisons I'm
Just. 1t would be enlightening to hear
from this writer just what other cities
have such low fares-less than cents
1t Is also doubtful whether on the
average the service is three times bet
ter, as this writer suggests. Some lines
as he suggests, have poor service, tut
he certainly in all fairness doesn't ex-
pect the street railways to furnish one-
minute schedules where passengers are
few and far between.
Taxis don't cruise up and down the
streets of Riverdale, because there are
not many tares there. The same is
true Of the street railways. The rail-
ways Of the District have graph charts
which show the number OF passengers
each line carries, where they board
the cars and where they leave. These
charts show the need for additional or
fewer cars The cutbacks which the
NViter talks about were put here for
the express purpose of giving the center
Of the city the service which IFS density
necessitates. Cars need not be- run
over a long suburban route when their
service Is required to handle croWos
downtown.
Washington has no center loop sys-
tenn. Practically all street railway lines
here run from the outskirts OF the city
through the downtown city and cut
again to the outskirts. Take the Lin
coin Park line, for example. During
the rush hour cars are needed to carry
people downtown from Lincoln Park to
the center of town. From the center
of town there is no rush and very little
business. Therefore cars are switched
back at Connecticut avenue and S
street to the center Of town so as to
assist the regular service from George
town in the densely settled area.
It Is again important to remember
that no other transit system in the
United States has the whole brunt OF
the load forced on 1t at one particular
IL re- namely. Q q m. and 4:30 pm. The
rush In New York City covers three
hour period, thus avoiding q huge peak
load such as occurs here when the
Government dismisses its employees. As
for the schedule of cars, l rode the
street cars for years, catching the same
car at the same time each and every
morning and very seldom arriving late
or getting of schedule. II you will ride
In an auto down the street in the OPP
posite direction to which the street cars
are carrying the morning or evening
rush you will see the regularity OF
schedule Let the writer try this on
Fourteenth street or Georgia avenue or
even on East Capitol street.
Mr.. Allen should also keep in mind
In referring to the Potomac Electric
Power Co. the we'll known principle
which all students Of municipal govern
ment know. namely, that all public
utilities should and must be ronopolies.
The reason the "Pepco" Is prosperous
there Is no competition. 1t IL 4 monop-
oily With the street cars this is not
so, there being six distinct railway lines
and Ave bus lines in and around Wash
ington all in competition. The street
railways are losing passengers not so
much because of the high fares, but
because OF the unregulated taxis. bus
competition and mostly because of
privately owned automobiles. The taxi.
the bus and the private car all cost as
much. end usually much more, than
the street re- lwsy fare. Why expect the
street car companies to furnish good
service at no c@t?
PAUL D. GABLE