The Street Railway System Of Metropolitan Boston PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... THE STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM of METROPOLITAN BOSTON It seems hardly an exaggeration to say that not only is ' the whole civilized world at work on improved municipal transportation, but every considerable town in both hemispheres is acquiring experience of more or less general value in regard to it, while at the same time seeking to learn the results of experience elsewhere."1 This is more obviously true of material and scientific appliances, viz., cars, motors, conductors and track laying; but in its other and more abstruse aspects the problem is of the utmost hygenic and governmental importance. As a public agency, the electric street railway is now fast revolutionizing the methods of urban life, spreading it over a wider area and subjecting it to new influences; at the same time entailing, in such matters as paving, sewerage and police, vastly increased municipal expenditures. The benefits of the rapid extension of a street railway system are never doubted, for an enormous part of the population is enabled to make its home in the more healthy and pleasant suburbs. It is also established beyond question that these railways are "Natural Monopolies" so far as competition with other lines of traffic is concerned.2 It would be hoping for too much to expect natural monopolies so absolute not to make the most of their opportunities to secure profits far in excess of those secured in ordinary competitive business. The communities are to blame if they tacitly allow the enjoyment of monopoly profits by corporations which freely use the public streets. The people will ride and must ride, whether they like or dislike the corporation which provides the service. One might reasonably expect, therefore, when the relations between the people and these...