Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-29
End Of Honeymoon for D. c. Transit Seen
As Financial Issues Draw Cloud Over Future

MS sufIace-traneport reopon-
abilities apparently In much
the same fashion as those fall
Ing TO him Is an airline op-
orator.
Something over q dozen years
ago Mr.. Chalk founded Trans
Caribbean Always, q carrier
currently operating six planes
on q schedule between Puerto
Rico and New York, plus char
ter service. In August two years
ago q Caribbean sub
sidiary, Tea Investing Corp.
bought the then Capital Tran
sit CO. from the wolfson In
terests. whose franchise had
been revoked. Mr.. Chalk paid
100000 cash and some SIS
million which he borrowed.
With the company he OBJ
tanned . congressional fran
chise granting him q 20-year
Washington mass-transit mo-
nopoly. together with some un-
precedented tax concessions.
Makes Radical Changes
The Chalk regime has
brought radical changes In the
formerly prim. almost grimly
conservative character Of the
city's transit operation. Mr..
Chalk, who at q $4,000 salary
currently serves as the COM
pany's chairman. president and
chief counsel (his wife Is sec
rotary at $4,000, has outfitted
his once with draperies. q
figured carpet and antiques, In
white, gold and blue, q dashing
contrast to Wolfson austerity.
This decor symbolizes the
Chalk business philosophy
which Is the peculiarly Ameri-
can creed associated with New
York's Madison avenue. It Is
known, In his own words, as
the hard SELL" Transit has
been In the process Of being
remade in this image.
Some Of the Chalk innova-
tons would startle Mr.. Wolf
son and his predecessors. He
has painted buses and street.
cars (once drably utilitarian).
q cleaning fiamingo. white and
two shades Of green Ga fash
Of sunshine passing through
the neighborhood." one femi-
nine enthusiast wrote him). He
has posted seven attractive
hostesses on buslines. on the
sound theory that a diverted
customer is likely to be a hap
pier one.
He has aforementioned a
streetcar, also stewardess-
'manned"-to cart tourists and
anyone else who happens along
back and forth between the
Capitol and the White House.
Cool Buses Coming
A fleet of 81 sleek new air.
conditioned buses, palpably !
an epochal advance for civiliza-
ton in semi-tropic Washington,
is scheduled to start service in
several weeks.
Employees also are feeling the
pleasant impact Of the Chalk
personality. The interior of the
ancient carbarn where the
company has its headquarters.
at Thirty-sixth and M streets |
NV, has recently been rebuilt
into modern, aforementioned,
pastel decorated offices.
Beyond visual and functional
matters the Chalk philosophy |
has been extended vigorously
into the company's business
activity,
The firm has purchased a
fleet of 26 limousines which it
runs for hire. Ten former Grey
hound buses have been &C
quired and refurbished as part
Of q greatly enlarged charter
fleet. A sightseeing office
with an agent also on hand for
the Chalk Tra11s-Caribbean
airline has been opened in the
Raleigh Hotel, and another on
the highway near Aberdeen, Md.
Sightseeing counselors" have
been set to patroling the side
walks selling tour tickets. Tours
take patrons to race tracks,
embassies. night clubs and
points as far as Annapolis, Sky
line drive and Gettysburg.
Statesmen visit New York and
other cities to boom package
weekend trips, including hotel
rooms, for out-of-town visitors.
Visions Of Future
Mr.. Chalk has painted verbal
pictures Of still more glowing
undertakings. He has proposed
q daily limousine Service to and
from New York. He has applied
10 start q local helicopter "air-
taxi" service. He has visualized
q club-coach commuter service
for suburbanites. complete. of
course, with stewardess plus
newspapers, bridge tables and
orange Juice.
Also envisaged have been a
multimillion dollar downtown
bus-helicopter terminal, plus a
network of suburban bus-shop-
ping centers. Mr.. Chalk has
limited interest in possible abb
sorption of suburban bus COM
panies.
To date most of these am
billions have remained verbal.
According to the transit sys-
TENS chief they are all alive
and on the docket, however.
All this has won Mr.. Chalk
friends and compliments. Rob-
ert e. Mclaughlin, president of
the Districts Board Of Com
missioners. recently observed
before a congressional COM
mittee:
II think one thing we have
been looking for in the transit
service is imagination, and we
have lots of it with Mr.. Chalk"