Rapid transit is one of the essentials in the busy life of a great city.
Buffalo has outgrown the horse car system and has now swift electric
cars speeding in all directions. All the great arteries of travel
leading from the heart of the city are equipped with electric cars. The
work of putting in the electric system has been one of great magnitude,
as there was no cessation in the traffic while the change was being
made.
Though electric cars have been in operation in some of the park roads
for several years, the work of changing the system in down town streets
was not started until the fall of 1890. Work was then begun on Niagara
Street, and on July 4, 1891, the first electric cars were run in that
important thoroughfare. Within four months traffic on the line was
tripled, and it has steadily increased ever since. Elk, Seneca,
Washington and Sycamore streets, all thoroughfares leading to the
suburbs, were next equipped with electric cars, and at this writing
(June, 1892) the work of changing the system in Main Street is
progressing rapidly, and is almost completed. The system is, of course,
being changed in the most important thoroughfares first, and the less
important lines will undergo the same treatment in rapid succession, so
that it will not be very long before horse cars will be remembered in
Buffalo as the vanished symbol of a slower era. The total length of the
street railroad tracks of Buffalo is over 100 miles.
Through the chief thoroughfares the electric cars run every three
minutes. A single fare of five cents is charged from one end of the city
to the other, with the privilege of changing from one line to another.
There are no transfer charges. The company pays to the city a percentage
on its earnings of two to three per cent., graded in proportion to the
amount of the gross receipts. This arrangement, which was entered into
during the early part of 1892, was a very welcome one to the people,
particularly to workingmen, who consequently are enabled to reach their
work in any part of the city, even the most distant, for a five cent
fare. The swiftness of the electric cars, from eight to eighteen miles
an hour, is a great factor in time-saving, and it is much appreciated by
working people, as well as by business men, and all who are impatient of
delay in getting from one part of the city to another.
The Buffalo Railway Company, which operates all the lines of street
railroad in the city, has a capital of six million dollars, so that it
is financially strong and able to carry out any improvement desired.
Cheap electric power from Niagara will, of course, be available in the
running of street cars in Buffalo; and as it can be bought very much
cheaper than it can be produced by the evaporation of steam it will have
a potent influence in making it possible for the company to grant still
further concessions to the public. The citizens’ committee which
recently arbitrated between the company and the public and brought about
the present satisfactory agreement had full and free access to all the
books of the company, and figured out to a nicety the cost of carrying
each passenger, and the amount of profit in the business. If the cost of
the motive power had been cut in two, as it will be cut by the
introduction of Niagara’s power, the committee would certainly have
reported in favor of even better terms for the city. Thus it is a fair
conclusion that the beneficent effects of cheap power generated at the
Falls will be felt by every person who rides on the street cars of
Buffalo.
This subject is here dwelt upon at considerable length because the
writer feels that it is of great importance. Every manufacturer whose
eyes are turned in this direction, and who is considering whether he
shall take advantage of the peerless opportunities now offered in
Buffalo, wants to know about the street car service. He wants to know,
in case he should locate his plant here, how quickly and how cheaply he
and his employees could get to and from their business. It is a pleasure
to assure him and all others interested that the electric street
railroad system of Buffalo is pronounced by experts to be the best in
the United States, and also that its management is of the most liberal
and progressive kind.
The street car service of a city is part of its throbbing life, part of
its pulse, and by it the business health and prosperity of the city can
be gauged.