Evening star., 1944-01-26
Court Test Expected
On ice Order 10 Cut
Potomac Bus Fares
Ruling Affects Thousand:
Of Workers in War and
Navy Departments

A court fight appeared in the
making today in the wake of the
Interstate Commerce Commission
finding ordering a new system of
reduced trans-Potomac bus fares for
the Capital Transit Co. and three
Virginia lines which will affect thou
sands of Government workers in
the War and Navy Departments.
The local company and Arlington
& Fairfax Motor Transportation Co.,
Washington, Virginia & Maryland
Coach Co. and Alexandria, Bancroft
& Washington Transit Co. have
until March l3 to place the new
fares into effect.
Meanwhile, there were indications
that one or more of the companies
would appeal to District Court. Any
court action on an ICC finding of
this sort must be acted on by a
three-judge statutory tribunal.
E. D. Merrill, president of Capital
Transit, asserted that while he had
not had time to discuss the order in
detail with company counsel, "at
first sight it appears to me to be
something which we must test in
the courts"
Three Point Ruling.
Virtually all of the recommended
tions made by the War and Navy
during hearings last
summer were granted in yesterdays
report, including the suggestion that
for fare purposes, the Pentagon
Building be considered in the Dis
trict. The ICC ruled:
l. That the Capital Transit Co.
extend its regular local fare Q0-
cent cash, weekly pass and tokens) ),
including transfer privileges, to and
from all points served by the COM
pany in the District to and from
the Pentagon Building. At present,
the company operates a shuttle serv-
ice which costs cents cash after
use of token, pass or transfer.
Straight cash fare without prior use
of local facilities is Is cents.
2 The Virginia lines may con-
tinue charging 10 cents cash fare
to the Pentagon, Navy Annex. Army
Air Forces Annex or National Air
port, but they shall institute be-
tween their Washington terminals
and the installations served tokens
selling three for Is cents-the same
as the District token fare. The Com
mission failed, however, to recon-
mend here a system of passes as
suggested during the hearings.
3. That all companies shall insti-
tute joint fares, calling for a 12-
ticket book to sell at $160, which
would be equivalent to 1872 cents.
The book would be used for multi
pie trips to the area and would be
good on any of the lines.
Seven of 10 Concur.
The report found seven members
of the commission concurring, two
dissenting in full and one dissent
ing in part. 1t was noted that Com
missioner William Patterson, who
presided at the lengthy hearings
which opened August 18, was one
of two commission members who
registered full dissent.
In a 19-page report, the commits
sion declared, among other things,
that it had authority under the
Interstate Commerce Act to pre-
scribe fares between points in the
District and the areas involved.
In this connection, it observed:
"The transit company (CapitaD
is not now, although it may have
been in the past, a street electric
passenger railway in the usual
sense of that term. 1t conducts bus
operations throughout the District
and in adjacent territory, and the
total mileage operated by its buses
and streetcars is about the same"
Business Area Extension.
Claiming that the nearby Gov
ernment buildings were to all in
tents and purposes an extension
Of the main business area of Wash
ington, the report declared:
This is urban mass transporta-
ton between points in the District
and points in Virginia just beyond
the District-Virginia line and is
the same in all essential charac-
teristics as the transportation be-
tween residential areas of the Dis
tHict and commercial and Govern
ment Establishments in the Dis
trict."
Commissioner Patterson held that
the ICC was without Jurisdiction
over any transportation performed
by the Capital Transit and that it
was further without jurisdiction to
prescribe a level of single-line or
joint-line fares dependent on the
purchase of more than one ticket or
token at time.