Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1913 — HAS STEPLESS MS [ARTICLE]

HAS STEPLESS MS

Will Save Gothamites 125,000 Miles a Year in Steps. Governor of New York Expected to Sign Bill Doing Away With the ~ Ancient Type—Old Horse Cars Are Doomed. » *- New York.—By the introduction of a new style of street car the New York Railways company is about to save the good people of this city an annual climb from the level of the street of 125,000 miles a year, and a descent to the street of exactly the same length. It has come about through its engineers recognizing that it was ridiculous to make their passengers continue every time they boarded a street car to climb above all the machinery and that a little ingenuity would enable them to design a car with practically no climbing at all.

Once the figures are given anyone can verify this calculation for himself. In the year ended June 30, 1912, the New York Railways company and its predecessor, the Metropolitan Street Railway company, carried just under 264,000,000 passengers. The height of the step of the so-called stepless car from the street is ten inches and the height of the old-style car, which It is to replace, is about 40 inches. Consequently there is a saving of 30 Inches every time a passenger gets on or off the car, and this works out at 125,000 miles a year for the entire system. The double-decked, stepless car, which bears so strong a family resemblance to the other new style of car, will continue, however, tor some time alone in its glory. It was only after considering carefully the many different brands of street car in use in other cities that the New York Railways company evolved the side-door, stepless, prepayment car. Montreal, for example, has a side-door, prepayment car, and Philadelphia prides itself on its “near-side car.” The latter was inspired by the desire to provide room sos more passengers and to enable them to enter and leave at such a point that they would encounter as little as possible of the mud of the street

While the newest thing in street cars Is . being installed in New York, the oldest is about to be abandoned. New York has for several years been the only one of the big cities to retain horse cars. In some instances this was necessary because of congested traffic, but new subways have relieved this to such an extent that electric power now is practical

Governor Sulzer now has under consideration a bill requiring all street car companies of the city to cease operating horse cars after January 1 next This measure has passed the legislature, and if accepted by the governor, will affect six lines in Manhattan, but even without this legislation it is probable that in a few months the last of the old horse cars will have been driven to the barns, never to run again. When the public service commission took office .on July 1, 1907, there were 16 horse-car lines in operation. Of these four have been abandoned and six are now wholly or partially operated by storage battery cars. The six still rt/nning are the Avenue C line, from the Desbrosses street ferry across town to East Twenty-fourth street; the Bleecker street line, from Bleecker street and Broadway to Fourteenth street and Ninth avenue; the Chambers street line, from Chambers street ferry to Grand street ferry; tn. Metropolitan cross-town line, from Desbrosses street ferry to Grand street ferry; the Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets line, from Broadway to the Twenty-third street ferry, and the Sixth avenue-Desbrosses street ferry line, from Sixth avenue and Third street to the Desbosses street ferry.