Minority Report of the Committee on Railways in Relation to the Hoosac Tunnel and the Railroads Leading Thereto / With a bill to incorporate the State Board of Trustees of the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad; also the speech delivered by Hon. E. P. Carpenter in the Senate of Massachusetts, June 3, 1873, in support of the same

by Massachusetts. General Court. Committee on Railways and Canals

SECT. 16. In the carriage of through passengers and merchandise, the rates of transportation shall be estimated pro rata per mile, and the Hoosac Tunnel shall be estimated at such length in miles, not exceeding fifty, as shall seem equitable to the trustees.

SECT. 17. In the management of such railroads as shall come under the operation of said board of trustees, there shall be no unequal discriminations in freights, fares or facilities in favor of or against different persons, places or connecting railroads.

SECT. 18. In case of the lease of the Fitchburg Railroad under the terms of this act, the said board of trustees is authorized and directed to purchase terminal facilities in Boston, westerly of the freight station of the Boston and Maine Railroad and to arrange with the Eastern Railroad Company for an interchange of stations in Boston in such manner as to obviate the necessity of passenger trains on the Eastern Railroad, Boston and Maine Railroad and Fitchburg Railroad crossing the tracks of the other, and the Eastern Railroad Company is hereby authorized, with the assent of said trustees, to take or purchase all the land, depot property and buildings of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, situated in Boston south of the channel or passage-way for vessels through the Fitchburg Railroad bridge over Charles River, said property to include all the draws and drawbridges over the passage-way for vessels.

Also all the property, land and buildings situated on the south-westerly side of the following line, to wit: beginning at a point on the northerly side of the above-mentioned passage-way for vessels twenty-two feet nine inches east of the easterly line of the roadway draw over said passage-way, and running northerly at right angles to said passage-way, one hundred and three feet five inches, to a point where said line intersects with the north-easterly line of said Fitchburg Railroad bridge over Charles River; thence northerly, following and coinciding with said north-easterly line of bridge, eight hundred and forty-eight feet; thence turning and running westerly to a point in the north rail of the north passenger track of the Fitchburg Railroad, distant four hundred and sixteen feet seven inches from the south-easterly line of Austin Street, measured on said north rail of the north track. Said point is also distant twenty-nine feet four inches at right angles from the southerly side of the wooden freight house (measured from a point sixty feet distant from the westerly end) belonging to the Fitchburg Railroad Company, on Front Street; thence southerly, crossing the Fitchburg passenger tracks at right angles to a point four feet distant south of the south rail of south passenger track; thence westerly on a curved line parallel with the south rail of the south passenger track, and four feet distant therefrom to the south-easterly line of Austin Street in Charlestown. And if the Eastern Railroad Company shall so fake the said property of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, then the Fitchburg Railroad Company shall take or purchase all the like property of the Eastern Railroad Company lying between the crossing of the Eastern and Fitchburg Railroads and Causeway Street in Boston, except the parcel of land to be taken by the Boston and Maine Railroad, as hereinafter provided; and in case of the taking or exchange of the tracks and property herein before described, or any part thereof, the said Fitchburg Railroad Company shall locate and construct such tracks and bridge structures on the westerly side of the present line of the Eastern Railroad as may be necessary to connect its railroad and tracks with the tracks and property so purchased or taken by it; and shall not thereafter cross either said Eastern Railroad or said Boston and Maine Railroad except for freight purposes.

And the Eastern Railroad Company shall locate and construct such tracks and bridge structures as shall be required to connect its present tracks northerly of its crossing with the Boston and Maine Railroad with the tracks and property so purchased or taken by it, keeping at all times east of a line drawn from a point on the easterly side of its present location, distant southerly three hundred and fifty feet, measured on said line from its intersection with the southerly side of Cambridge Street to the point of intersection of the northerly line of the state prison wharf with the easterly line of the location of the Boston and Maine Railroad, and thence keeping east of said easterly line of said location; and shall not thereafter cross the tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad.

And the Eastern Railroad Company shall take any lands now belonging to the Boston and Maine Railroad in Charlestown or Somerville lying easterly of such new location; and the Boston and Maine Railroad shall take all the road-bed, land and property of the Eastern Railroad Company lying between the line above described for the westerly limitation of said new location of the Eastern Railroad and the westerly line of the old location of the Eastern Railroad, and the present northerly line of the Fitchburg Railroad: provided, however, that in case of the aforesaid taking and exchange of property by and between the Eastern and Fitchburg Railroads, the Boston and Maine Railroad shall release the Eastern Railroad Company from all damages for its taking and occupation thereof and take from the said Eastern Railroad Company so much of the premises described in the first section of the three hundred and fifty-sixth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-two, as was taken from the said Boston and Maine Railroad by said Eastern Railroad Company under the provisions of that act; and said Eastern Railroad Company shall, without other compensation therefor, release to said Boston and Maine Railroad all their rights in said premises acquired by them, taking the same under said act; and provided, further, that any exchange of land made under the provisions of this section shall take effect simultaneously.

All general laws relating to the taking of land for railroad purposes and to the location and construction of railroads, shall be applicable to and govern the proceedings in the taking and exchange of lands and property, and in the making of any new locations under the provisions of the foregoing sections, except that instead of the county commissioners three disinterested persons shall be appointed by the supreme judicial court for the county of Suffolk as a board of commissioners to determine the values of the lands and property so taken and exchanged or over which any such location may be made, and to adjudicate the damages to be paid by any of the others upon the taking, exchange or locations aforesaid, from whose decision an appeal shall be to a jury in behalf of either party, as provided by law in the case of lands taken for railroad purposes.

Any sum of money received by the Fitchburg Railroad in said interchange of stations and tracks above the expense of necessary alterations shall be applied to procuring new terminal facilities and making improvements on said road or may be applied to the reduction of the capital stock of the Fitchburg Railroad Company in such manner as may be agreed between the Fitchburg Railroad Company and said board of trustees.

SECT. 19. This act shall take effect upon its passage.