USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume III > Part 39
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voted an increase to $77,000,000. Later on, the full $100,000,000 legislatively authorized was issued. And in less than six years $116,288,000 was spent for improvements. It is doubtful if the head of any great railway has ever before faced such a diversity of transportation problems as became the task of Mr. Mellen when he came back to the New Haven; vast reconstruction in tracks and terminals; enormous additions to the equipment ; readjusting relationships with the trunk lines, and formulating new policies in behalf of New England, as well as strengthening his company's own position as a national factor in transportation; developing a broad policy in the local field occupied by the trolley-line services; improving and extending the company's marine lines; open- ing up new connections with the systems beyond the Hudson; energetically dealing with coal-carrying agencies to safeguard the fuel supply services vital to New England's industries ; great terminal improvements in New York and elsewhere; electrification on a scale that meant revolution in motive power conditions. The New Haven is much more than a railway company. In marine transportation, it does a large and profitable busi- ness. It practically controls the trolley services in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Through the charter rights of acquired street railway properties in Connecticut, it inci- dentally supplies electricity and gas for light, heat and power. New York City locally constitutes the greatest market for New England industries and is also a chief gateway to the markets west and south. This circumstance has developed an extraordinary expe- ditious freight service. A piece of leather one day converted into shoes in a New Eng- land factory may the next day take its place on the shelf of the New York retailer.
The New Haven of today differs but little from that pictured by Baxter. It has expanded as necessity demanded, but the changes have been fewer during the last two decades than one would naturally expect. Two factors have entered into this condition. Perhaps a more accurate statement would mention but one, naming the World War. The tremen- dous demands made upon the equipment of all railroads during that period, together with a management directed by the National Govern- ment, brought about a deterioration of the various lines together with a multitude of entanglements, that has taken the best efforts of the direc- tion of our railroads to simply rehabilitate them. The problems of the late years have been to keep up with the needs of the time. There has been no diminution of the concentration of passenger traffic and freight, but the class of it and the bulk of it has not increased. Rather it is otherwise, for the motor truck and the motor bus have become compe- titions for the short hauls in freight and passenger service. This compe- tition has reduced the gross income of the railroads radically, while the costs of operation have increased. With the lessened earning powers of the railroads their borrowing status has been reduced. Capital no longer flows readily into the coffers of our transportation systems. Given, then, the railroads worn down by war service, successful competition from other modes of transportation, money hesitant to come for the refurbishing of the lines and to meet competition, it is easy to see why the last decade in railroading has been one of holding on what is, rather
1
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON
than spreading out into what ought to be. If that period which reached its height when the Government took over the railroads in the Great War be called the "Era of Consolidation," then the years since can rightly be denominated as the "Period of Conservation."
The conditions which have affected all railroads have not been escaped by the New Haven. It has more than held its own ; plans origi- nating before the war, have, for the most part, been carried out since. But its slogan has been "Efficiency" rather than expansion. In Boston its policy has been to secure better means and methods of freight hand- ling. Its chief classification yards in South Boston are inadequate, but strenuous efforts are being made to remedy this condition as funds become available. The greatest improvement in freight handling has been the recent completion of the classification yards of the New Haven at Southampton Street. The connections between the New Haven and the other lines entering Boston, and with the piers, are not of the best, but are, as yet, adequate. The constant switching takes more time than efficiency demands, but the interchange of freight by this method is not as inefficient nor as costly as is sometimes supposed. But better means of communication with the railroad terminals is one of the pressing needs of today. The motor truck is here to stay, and if a truck can convey from miles back in the State its load of freight quicker than the same truck can carry it from the freight terminal to neighboring business houses and factories, the railroad is placed at a disadvantage whose effects will be ruinous. Both the railroads and the city are endeavoring to find a way to provide the prompt delivery of freight to the city and metropolitan district.
Street Railways-The history of the street railway parallels in many of its features the story of the railroads. This history begins in 1852, as far as Boston is concerned, when the Legislature granted a charter to the Dorchester and Roxbury Company. Then followed charters to the Metropolitan Railroad Company, the Cambridge Street Railroad Company, the Middlesex Railroad Company, the Highland Street Rail- road Company, and many others. The steam railroads had brought the neighboring and far-distant regions in connection with the city; the street, or horse-drawn railroad, as the horse was the only motive power considered at first, was needed to join distant parts of the city and sub- urbs together, and do it in a way that gave the greatest intercommuni- cation by the fastest means and the least discomfort. The influence of the steam railroad can be seen in this, even though it had started only two decades prior to the Boston and Roxbury line, for the railroad com- pletely changed the notions of travel. The luxury of moving rapidly to places that hitherto had been too far away to permit of more than an
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TRANSPORTATION AND SHIPPING
occasional visit, created for an equally luxurious method of paying a business or social call in various parts of the city or nearby towns.
Like the railroads, the horse car lines were built in small sections with little thought of combination or connections with each other. The same competitive conditions held; the idea that it was good business to join hands with some other road for the benefit of all never seems to have entered the head of the fathers of rapid transit. The Boston to Roxbury line extended from Boylston Street to Guild Row, the center of the Roxbury of that day. This was opened for use in 1856, and was then under the control of the Metropolitan Horse Railroad. The tracks were soon laid to Tremont and Bromfield streets at one end, and extended to Jamaica Plain on the other.
The First Horse Railroad into Boston-The honor goes to Cambridge for building the first horse railroad into Boston, and, for that matter, the first of its kind to be built and operated in New England. In 1853, Gardiner C. Hubbard, Charles C. Little and Isaac Livermore secured a State charter for the Cambridge Company and straightway began to build. By March first, tracks had been laid as far as Chambers Street in Boston, and ten days later horse-drawn cars began regular trips to this terminus. It was a very successful experiment, but many of the passengers refused to risk their lives when the cars came to the hills. It was thought impossible to make the grades required to get into lower Boston, and the rails had been stopped short of the destination preferred. This Cambridge company, reaching then from Bowdoin Square to Watertown, was purchased by the Union Railroad Company. It did not take the horse lines as long to reach the consolidation period as it did the steam railroads.
Lines Multiplied-During 1857, December, the Dorchester line was opened ; this extended from the Broad Street corner of State Street to South Boston and Dorchester. In 1858, the Charlestown line from Hay- market Square to Charlestown and Somerville was constructed ; a branch to Chelsea by the Middlesex Company ; and a direct South Boston road, by the Broadway Company. In 1859 the line to Brookline was pushed through by the Metropolitan Company. From then on branches and spur roads spread out in every direction. The streets of lower Boston were cluttered with car tracks. By the early sixties, Scollay Square had become a street car center with the Haymarket and Bowdoin squares as close competitors. One's life was hardly safe if he failed to keep his wits about him when he moved through these sections full of railroad companies, carriages and pedestrians. It may have lacked the speedy dangers of today, but there were no traffic policemen to direct
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON
things, nor was the control over vehicles quite that over the motor car of today in effectiveness.
Introduction of the "Trolley Car"-Consolidations were in order after the close of the Civil War, so that, by 1885, there were but five oper- ating companies in Boston, the Metropolitan, South Boston, Boston Consolidated, Cambridge, and Lynn & Boston. Authorized by the Legislature in 1887, all these companies, with the exception of the Lynn & Boston, joined forces as the West End Company. This latter com- pany immediately desired a more convenient and efficient power than horses, together with some speed. Attention was turned first towards the cable system, this having been used abroad and in New York. Cables were being installed when recent developments in the use of electricity as a motive power impressed the directors as worth investigation, if no more. Accordingly, a small group of Boston capitalists journeyed down to Richmond, Virginia, where a small electric railroad system had been built, the working of which had created quite a stir in transportation circles. There they saw Frank T. Sprague's little trolley cars come buz- zing out of their sheds and go off nonchalantly down the street. Rich- mond is a hilly place, but the cars made the steep grades, threaded their way in and out of the heavy street traffic, all with a speed and controlla- bility far exceeding that of the horse-drawn car. These men returned to Boston convinced that a new method of running surface cars had been perfected, and took the steps that made Boston the first large city in the United States to use the "Electric Trolley System."
The first electric line in the city was opened January 1, 1889; this was between Brookline and Boston, being equipped in part with an overhead trolley, and in part by an underground conduit system. The latter system proved unsatisfactory after a trial of several months and the trolley system was substituted throughout. On February 16, 1899, the first complete electric line between Boston and Cambridge was placed in operation, proving satisfactory from the start. The equipment of these original lines was both crude and costly, and more than a mil- lion dollars was spent before the electric railroad passed beyond the experimental stage and stepped out as an economical as well as prac- tical method of supplying rapid transit. The electrification of the Bos- ton street railways was begun on September 30, 1888, and was not com- pleted until September 30, 1896. It must be remembered that electric traction was still in a stage of development even as late as early in this century. The method of running more than single cars was not demon- strated until 1893 at the Chicago Exposition ; and even then the method was not made thoroughly practical until the invention of the multiple unit system in 1898, by which each car in a train could be made a motor
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car. This perfecting made possible the use of subways, a thing desirable but considered impossible. The tunnel was being used in England at this time for the steam tramways, somewhat as tunnels were being utilized in this country. But they were not only unsatisfactory because of the dirt, but dangerous to health on account of the smoke and gasses left by the locomotives from which it was very, very hard to rid the underground ways.
The "Elevated" and the Subway-The city of Boston, in the face of continued opposition, completed a subway under Tremont Street and opened it to the public September 3, 1898. The date is well worth remem- bering, for the Tremont subway was not only the first to be constructed in America, but with the exception of one in Budapest, was the first shallow subway (as distinguished from the deep tunnel) to be built anywhere in the world. There was nothing surprising in the criticism of the authorities for starting to bury millions of dollars in an untried scheme. It was predicted that the people would refuse to risk their lives underground; that the cold and dampness of the subway would breed colds and pneumonia, if nothing worse; that it never could be completed ; and even if it were, no adequate return would ever be made for the extraordinary expenditures of the city. One reason for the oppo- sition to the use of an underground railroad was the strong sentiment then extant favoring elevated roads. The Rapid Transit Commission of the city, appointed under legislative authority in June, 1891, had, after repeated hearings, recommended the improvement of the rapid transit conditions by the construction of elevated railroads, suggesting two complete lines from City Point, Boston to Sullivan Square, Charlestown, and from Dudley Street to East Cambridge, as well as other lesser roads. This was in 1892, but fortunately the recommendations failed to please the Legislatures for several years. The delay was enough to give the commission time enough to consider the prospective developments in electric traction, and to advise the construction of a subway from the Public Garden, and from the Pleasant Street entrance to the North Station. This recommendation was made by the Subway Commission January I, 1894.
The report of the commission met with violent opposition from many of the citizens. Organized efforts were made to have the recommenda- tion rejected by the Legislature. The following from a Boston news- paper of April 30, 1894, reflects the feeling of the times :
Anti-Subway Opposition to the Mayor's Underground Route.
"From the league organized for that purpose. Petition to the Legis- lature signed by thousands. A system of elevated roads is recom- mended.
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON
"The executive committee of the Merchants' Anti-Subway League held a meeting Saturday. The business transacted was not given out for publication, but it is understood that the following petition, which has been in circulation during the past week or ten days, has been signed by some 12,000 merchants and citizens of Boston":
To the Members of the General Court of Massachusetts:
We, the undersigned, citizens and taxpayers of Boston, many of us merchants and property owners in the so-called "congested district," hereby respectfully petition and represent that we are unalterably opposed to the construction of any subway in any por- tion of the city of Boston, whether for the alleged purpose of accommodating surface or elevated roads, or both, being convinced that such construction would seriously interfere with travel and traffic, proving ruinous to hundreds of merchants and in the end failing to relieve congestion or promote rapid transit.
And we declare ourselves in favor of some general system of elevated roads which shall accommodate the public, whether resident in the city proper, or in Roxbury, Dor- chester, Charlestown, East Boston, South Boston, Somerville, Brookline, Brighton, or other suburbs of Boston; said road to be constructed and operated by private capital instead of being a burden and a source of increased taxation, as would inevitably result under any of the proposed subway bills presented for your consideration.
And we shall ever pray ...
This petition will be presented to the Legislature today. Following are the names of a few of the petitioners, from which it would appear that the sentiment of a large proportion of Boston's solid business men is against the subway and in favor of a gen- eral system of elevated roads. (Here follow the names of 235 firms and individuals.)
The Building of the Subways-In spite of opposition, the city pro- ceeded to secure permission to construct the subway, and, after several necessary delays, started to build it. Elevated roads were also erected, but it is safe to say that there is today a complete reversal of opinion as regards the relative values of the subway and elevated lines. The present tendency in all large cities is in the direction of putting underground all the public utilities possible, particularly that of transit.
The empowering act of 1894 established the Boston Transit Com- mission to serve for five years, these terms being extended for a like period every five years until the founding of the present Transit Depart- ment in 1918. Under the Transit Department and its predecessor, the following tunnels and subways have been constructed :
Tunnel or Subway
Date of Beginning
Opened for Use
Length : Approximate
Feet Miles
Cost
Tremont Street
Mar. 28, 1895
Sept. 3, 1898
8,967
1.70
$4,369,000
East Boston
May 5, 1900
Dec. 30, 1904
7,480
1.42
3,355,000
Washington Street
Oct. 6, 1904
Nov. 30, 1908
6,IIO
1.15
7,997,000
Cambridge Connection
Sept. 29, 1909
Mar. 23, 1912
2,486
.47 1,521,000
Boylston Street
Mar. 12, 1912
Oct. 3, 1914
7,937
1.50
5,408,000
East Boston Tunnel Extension Dorchester
Nov. 29, 1912
Mar. 18, 1916
2,169
.4I
2,293,000
May 30, 1912
June 29, 1918
II,9II
2.26
10,870,000
Arlington Station (additional station of Boylston St. Sub- way)
Aug. 15, 1919 Nov. 13, 1921
.. . . 1,225,000
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TRANSPORTATION AND SHIPPING
In addition to the foregoing, the Charlestown Bridge was built at an approximate cost of $1,570,000, the date of the beginning of construction being August 15, 1896, and the date of the opening to the public, Novem- ber 27, 1899. There are also the continued alterations and changes of the East Boston Tunnel, begun late in 1921 and completed and opened to the public April 21, 1924, at an additional cost of $3,900,000. An addi- tion of about 1,300 feet, including the open incline, was made to the Dorchester Tunnel at a cost of $1,000,000. The work on this section was started on December 3, 1924, and completed a year later. This extension of the Dorchester Tunnel is only a part of the program of the department for the improving of the rapid transit system of Dor- chester. The estimated cost of the entire construction and the equip- ment to be provided by the city is $9,000,000; the rolling stock to be provided by the Boston Elevated Railway Company will cost about $1,000,000. Including other minor improvements, by 1927, about $50,000,000 had been invested by the city in rapid transit. These improvements are leased by the Boston Elevated Railway Company at an average of 474 per cent annual rental.
City Financing of the Rapid Transit Systems-The city had no desire to go into the financing of the rapid transit systems, but was forced into it by conditions that could be met only by such means. Mention has been made of the consolidation of four of the five street railway com- panies entering Boston in 1877, by which the West End Street Railway was formed. Electricity was introduced as a motor power the next year, and, by 1894, subways were planned and work started on the Tremont Subway the next year. The West End Company refused to father the subway, having other and less expensive ideas of the way to transport the citizens of the city, the elevation of tracks being one. The upshot of this division of opinion led to the legislative act of 1894 by which were created the Boston Transit Commission and the Boston Elevated Railway Company. Neither of these two parts had any necessary rela- tion to the other, the building of the subway not being contingent nor dependent upon the construction of a subway. The Boston Elevated was unable to finance the building of elevated tracks under the condi- tions imposed by the Legislature, so that in 1897 the present "elevated" was incorporated with authority to lease the West End Street Railway, and to build under the direction of the Railroad Commission of the Com- monwealth. Friction between the "elevated" and the commission reached a limit in 1918, and the railway was taken over by the State and is operated by a board of public trustees, appointed by the Governor, who are empowered to run the system on the basis of service-at-cost.
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON
State Control of Boston Railways-The Boston Elevated is the largest railway system in the country operated under government control. The Board of Trustees appoints and removes all officers and officials, deter- mines the service and facilities to be furnished, and fixes the rate of fare to be charged. Neither the stockholders nor directors have any control over the road, or its management. The Legislature sees to it that the fare charged covers the cost of service. If the revenue fails to meet the cost, then the deficit, after the reserve fund has been exhausted, is assessed upon the towns served. If the revenue exceeds the cost of serv- ice, then the excess, after the reserve fund is restored to its stated amount, is distributed among the communities along the lines.
The Boston Elevated Railway-The Boston Elevated Railway is somewhat mis-named, since it is a combination of surface, subway and elevated railways, of which the latter is in the minority. Just as the Bostonian travels "down East" lives "in Back Bay," so he goes under- ground to ride on the "elevated." The road extends into eleven sur- rounding cities and towns which have an aggregate population of per- haps one and a quarter million. According to figures published in 1924, the investment for owned and leased lines is well above one hundred million dollars, to which must be added the fifty million dollars of sub- ways owned by the city of Boston and leased to the company. This is said to be a larger investment in rapid transit per number of passengers carried than any other railway system in the United States. The trackage, in 1924, totaled five hundred and thirty-three miles, forty-five of which were used for third rail trains. In this same year, the railway owned and operated 1,680 surface cars, four hundred and sixty-one rapid transit cars, and thirty-five motor buses, making a total of 2,176 passenger cars. An average of more than a million cash passengers were carried every day, "twice the number carried by all the steam systems in New England combined." The number employed approximated 10,000; the annual payroll totaling about $16,000,000.
The history of the Boston Elevated Railway as it touches the metropolis is related in the Boston Year Book as follows:
"Chapter 548 of the Acts of 1894 provided for the incorporation of the Boston Elevated Railway Company, which was to operate a single post system of elevated railways known as the Meigs sys- tem, the method of construction used in New York, known as the Manhattan system, being specifically prohibited.
"It was found impossible to raise capital for the construction of this type of railway, and in 1897, by chapter 500 of the Acts of the Legislature of that year, the Act of 1894 was amended, permitting the construction of an elevated railway according to such plans or
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system as might be approved by the Board of Railroad Commis- sioners."
Under this Act of 1897 the present Boston Elevated Railway Com- pany was organized. The new company was authorized to lease, and did lease, the West End Street Railway upon terms approved by the Railroad Commissioners.
At that time no elevated structures had been built in Boston and the Tremont Street Subway was the only underground structure in existence. This subway had been leased by the city to the West End Street Rail- way Company, which then owned and operated practically all the sur- face lines in Boston and vicinity. Following the execution of the lease of the West End Company, the Boston Elevated Railway Company undertook to build certain elevated rapid transit lines and to operate the unified system of surface, and elevated and subway lines, with free transfers and a uniform fare of five cents for a single journey of any length in the same general direction.
Since that time, and in addition to the existing Tremont Street Sub- way, the following rapid transit facilities have been completed and put in operation :
By the City :
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