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

Many parties were represented by counsel, and various plans were presented.

The first proposal was that of the Troy and Boston, and Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad Companies, for a consolidation under one corporation of the direct line between Boston and Troy.

The second, for a consolidation of the Boston and Lowell and Fitchburg Railroad Companies, with authority to lease or purchase the lines to the tunnel and to Ogdensburg, placing under the control of one corporation about fifteen hundred miles of railroad.

Third, the proposition was urged upon the Committee to provide for the acquisition by the State of the Tunnel Line.

The attendance before the Committee was not limited to the representatives of corporations directly or indirectly interested in the result. Committees of the Board of Trade and other commercial associations, and many private citizens to some extent represented the public interests; while the larger audiences in attendance upon the sessions of the Committee attested the deep interest of the business community in the subject-matter under discussion.

The problem before the Committee was to determine how the people of this Commonwealth could derive the greatest benefit from the construction of the tunnel which has involved so large a public expenditure.

The relations of the State to this enterprise have greatly changed since its commencement. The tunnel was projected as a private enterprise, which was first aided by the State by a loan of its credit.

It was doubtless then intended that the tunnel when completed should form a part of the through line over the Fitchburg, Vermont and Massachusetts, Troy and Greenfield, and Troy anti Boston Railroads, to be owned and controlled by these corporations like the rest of the line. This project failed. The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company was unable with the state loan to complete the tunnel, and after great delays and difficulties, surrendered its railroad and the incomplete tunnel to the Commonwealth, which has since carried on the work at the public charge. Its completion within the current year may be expected, and the total expenditure from the treasury of the State will amount, including interest, to about $12,000,000. This expenditure is a charge upon the people and the property of the whole State.

It seems improbable that any disposition can be made of the tunnel which can return to the treasury the whole sum expended, and it is for the legislature to determine how far a return can be made to the people of the State from this great public expenditure, in increased means of transportation and a reduction of rates which are now a burden upon the whole community. Since the tunnel was projected, new lines of railroad have been built which give to nearly every portion of the State direct access to the tunnel and through it to the great West.