Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-07-30
Capital Transit
Admits Plans 10
Scrap Cdr|ine
Buses Slated for
Benning Road Area,
Merrill Tells PUG

Less than four hours after Dis
trict Highway Director H. c. White
hurst had called on the Capital
Transit Co. to admit publicly it in
tends to abandon the Benning road
carline in the Northeast section in
favor Of buses, the company late
yesterday informed the Public Utili-
ties Commission 1t plans to substi-
tute buses for streetcars on the line
east of Fifteenth street NV.
Announcement of the change,
which company officials declined to
confirm at a public hearing before
the commission yesterday morning,
was signed by e. D. Merrill, transit
company president.
Yesterdays hearing was held to
obtain the views of citizens in the
Northeast section on a transit COM
pany proposal to supplement the
present carline with rush-hour ex-
press bus service on the Sheriff road
and Capitol View lines to Eleventh
and H streets NV.
See Stores By-Passed.
The supplementary service was
opposed by the Northeast Business
mems Association on the ground an
estimated $4,000, 900 business invest
ment along H street NE, built along
the carline, might be by-passed. As
ISOLATION representatives said they
felt 1t would be only the forerun-
ner of an attempt to substitute
buses for the carline itself.
When Louis L. Bowdler, repre-
sentative fthe association, asked II
this were not to be the case, Dean
j. Locke, staff engineer of the tram
sit company and principal company
witness at the hearing, would say
only that the proposed bus service
was supplementary to the streetcar
line.
1t was then that Capt. Whitehurst,
an observer at the hearing, rose to
call on the transit officials to an
nounce their intentions publicly.
This they refused to do at the
time, saying that the hearing was
concerned only with the supple
mentary service proposal
Capt. Whitehurst added he had
a definite interest in knowing what
the company's intentions were con-
corning the steetcar tracks on H
street NE, since the street is to be
repaved in the near future.
In his statement to the commits
sion later in the day Mr.. Merrill
said:
ut appears to us that the pro-
posed extension of the Sheriff road
and Capitol View lines into the
downtown area, as proposed by the
company this morning constitutes
the best present solution to congest-
ed transfer conditions at Thirty
sixth street and Benning road NE,
and it has been our thought that
this should be undertaken as
promptly as is reasonably possible in
order to improve our service to the
patrons involved in that transfer,
regardless of later plans for substi-
tut1ng buses on the line as whole,
THE company now states that ID
plans to substitute buses for street.
cars on the Benning road line east
OF Fifteenth street NV. as soon as
the buses can be obtained and the
rerouting of such buses can be de-
termined
Routes 10 and IL Involved.
This plan would reduce one of the
longest carlines in the city to a
small fraction of it's length. The
routes involved are Nos. 10 and II.
Route 10 cars leave Rosslyn, at the
Virginia end of Key Bridge, and GO
eastbound on M street, Pennsyl-
vanla avenue, New York avenue, K
street, Massachusetts, avenue and H
street NV, continuing in the North
east section along H street, Benning
road and Minnesota avenue, and
then splitting in two to end at Ken
ilworth and Seat Pleasant. Route u
cars travel the same route, but have
their western terminus at Washing
ton Circle.
Under the plan, the only section
OF the line remaining would be from
Fifteenth street and New York ave-
nue. NV. to Washington Circle and
Rosslyn.
The proposal has yet to be filed
formally with the Pic