The New Wonder of the World: Buffalo, the Electric City

by A. E. Richmond

OUR ELECTRIC RAILROAD SYSTEM.

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.