Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-04
District Officials Attack
CopitoI Transit Tactics


trust suits were filed in 1947.
They accused major suppliers Of
buses. tires and petroleum of
financing National City Lines. a
Chicago transit holding COM
pany. in buying out local transit
companies and contracting to
buy only from the companies
putting up the money.
The suits ended in guilty ver-
diets in 1949 and 1855.
District Commissioner Samuel
Spencer. who recently suggested
to the Senate District Commit
tee that the proposed authority
might hire National City Lines
to run the Washington system.
said there had been no discus
sion with the company.
And. he declared, II don't
think I would" want the COM
Ipany in Washington at all in
view of the strike it is UNDER
going in Baltimore. The COM
lpany has refused to arbitrate
there, as did CTC in Washing
ton last summer. 1t was this
willingness to take a strike"
that led the District Commits
Isioners to recommend cancella-
ton of the CTC franchise.
Gen, Lane said the Commits
sioners. in recommending the
authority bill to Congress. had
hoped to have it passed by last
Thursday. It has not yet been
acted on by either the House or
Senate committees handling the
measure.
The lack Of action, he said, sis
the reason for the statement
here" He said 1t appears to be
doubtful" that an all-bus opera
ton as planned by the city heads
could get underway by August Is.
Narrowing to One Alternative
And, he said, ''it is getting to
the point" where the only al
Tentative viii be to take over the
existing etc system.
But, Gen. Lane declared, in
order to avoid taking over the
streetcar system and the ulti-
mate responsibility for spending
$11 million to tear up the tracks,
the transit authority might OPP
crate with less than a full COM
plement of buses" He said there
may be some curtailment of
transportation" after August is
until the authority receives
enough new buses.
He opposed an offer by etc
to swap its stock for the au-
thority's tax-free revenue bonds.
although admitting he was not
sure what the plan was. He
contended the offer was not spe-
ciflc on price, which he called
the heart of the problem" And.
he said. the city is in no position
to negotiate, as the offer sug-
gested.
Mr.. Spencer, however, said
the proposal was "a possibility"
once the authority was set UP.
Gen. Lane repeated earlier
statements that public opinion
on the conversion to buses should
not be considered, and that the
decision should be made on eco
nomic grounds alone.
Will People be Walking?
Asked If he could make any
estimate of the odds that the
people of Washington are going
to be walking?" Mr.. Hayes said:
We'll, that, Of course, is hard
to forecast because it takes into
consideration number of ele-
ments. We are concerned that the
regular procedures-steps in Con-
gress-would be time-consuming
over a period Of whatever time
that would result in.
And we, also know that the
question of the ability to obtain
buses is matter where there
has to be lead-time and time for
the manufacture of buses.
With that in mind, with those
elements in mind, we expressed
concern that even if there were
to be the regular routines that
still it seemed to us there would
have to be some curtailment as
far as continued service was con-
cerned."
Another questions asked, Mr..
Hayes, when you say that it will
not be in full operation do you
think there is any possibility that
you might have no operation at
all after the 18th (of August 2"
Mr.. Weston interjected, tits
possible"
Mr.. Hayes said, within the
remote possibility, I would say,
depending, Of course. on what
the legislation is and when it
might be had"