Archive Record
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Metadata
Object Name |
Application, Financial |
Title |
TER Return to Questionnaire for Docket 16092 [pg 30] |
Date |
ca 1948, April 26 |
Scope & Content |
Texas Electric Railway Return to Questionnaire (unsigned) to the Interstate Commerce Commision to abandon rail operations in total. This 32-page document was eventually signed, notarized and submitted to the Interstate Commerce Commission. [page 30 transcribed] Applicant's basic passenger rate is approximately 2¢ per mile, which is lower than the rate charged by steam railroads in this territory, but the same as the rate of motor bus companies operating on the highways in competition with Applicant. The 2¢ per mile rate is not high enough to bring in sufficient revenue to operate the line with the number of passengers now handled, but it is as high as Applicant feels that it can charge in competition with its motor bus competitors without losing additional passengers thereto, as well as losing more passengers to the privately owned automobile. Opportunities to secure freight traffic are restricted by reason of the location of the line on principal city streets in residential and retail business sections of the cities and towns served, the line not reaching industrial areas. Particular difficulty is encountered in Dallas due to zoning regulations. When opportunities to secure the location of industries on the line have arisen, it has not been possible, in good faith, to assure prospective patrons of the permanency of operation of the line. In Dallas the freight operations on the Dallas-Waco Division, entering Dallas from the South, are conducted over about two miles of the tracks of the Dallas Railway & Terminal Company (the local transit system in Dallas, which is entirely independent of Applicant). Applicant does not use any of the tracks of the local transit company in Dallas for freight operations on its Dallas-Denison Division. Applicant has no franchise permitting the movement of freight cars through and across the City of Dallas. Even with such a franchise, this could not physically be done as the strett[sic] car tracks are laid in paved streets too close together to give clearance for standard freight cars, and also the short radius curves would not permit the movement of such freight cars. Therefore, Applicant is unable to move freight cars between its two divisions, or beyond, and must depend upon the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Misouri[sic]-Kansas-Texas Railroad of Texas for switching service, thereby incurring considerable expense and delay. Applicant sees no practicable way in which this serious handicap can be overcome. The City of Sherman, Texas, by ordinance prohibits the moving of freight cars over the tracks of Applicant in the city except during the hours from 10:00 o'clock P.M. to 7:00 o'clock A.M., and not more than three cars in any one train, including the motive power. Short radius curves in Sherman usually restrict this movement to one freight car and the motive power. The ordinance also prohibits the transportation of gasoline, crude oil or high explosives through the City, permitting the transportation of such over a small portion of Applicant's line only between 12:00 o'clock midnight and 6:00 o'clock A.M. A persistent and prolonged effort was made to relieve this situation to quite an extent through the use by Applicant of a part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company of Texas' tracks in Sherman, but the assent of that railroad could not be secured. The City of Hillsboro, as well as Hill County, is urging Applicant to find some means of removing its tracks from Waco Street in Hillsboro, one of the main business streets of the city, and the street on which Highways Nos. 77 and 81, which constitute the main highway between Dallas and such points as Waco, Austin and San Antonio, etc., are located. Applicant does not see how this can be done except through abandonment of the line. The Chambers of Commerce of Denison and Sherman, two important cities on Applicant's railroad, have as one of their program objectives, the removal of Applicant's tracks from present locations on principal paved business streets and reconstructing elsewhere. The cost of such a relocation project being prohibitive, Applicant knows of no way this removal can be accomplished except through abandonment. Applicant has other problems confronting it as regards its tracks in the several cities and towns through which it operates under franchise rights. In practically all of these cities and towns it has tracks in pavement that are in need of complete rebuilding, other parts of its tracks that are in need of a considerable amount of repair, and in some instances tracks that are not in pavement but which the city authorities are urging be paved. The cost of such work is considered prohibitive. Applicant's line crosses White Rock Creek, about nine miles North of Dallas, which stream is subject to sudden overflow during rainy seasons. Applicant has been approached by a committee representing home owners located on White Rock Creek to the West of where Applicant's line crosses the creek, whose properties have been flooded during recent floods, with request that Applicant remove its dump through the bottom and replace same with trestles so as to permit, as they expressed it, the freer passage of water down the waterway when the creek is at flood. The length of such trestle work would be approximately 1,700 feet, and the cost thereof is considered prohibitive. Applicant's line crosses steam railroads in city streets in Denison, Sherman, Van Alstyne, Anna, Waxahachie, Italy and Waco. Some of these steam railroads are insisting that automatic signal protection be installed at certain of these crossings. The cost to Applicant of the installation of such signals is considered prohibitive. --30-- |
Search Terms |
Abandonment of Service Dallas Railway and Terminal Company Dallas-Denison Division Dallas-Waco Division Dallas-Waco Line Denison Chamber of Commerce Finance Docket 16092 Freight Business Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Highway 81 Highway US 77 Interstate Commerce Commission Missouri Kansas and Texas Railroad Passenger Tariff Sherman Chamber of Commerce Signals Steam Railroads Waco Street - Hillsboro White Rock Creek |
Collection |
Johnnie J. Myers Collection |
Catalog Number |
CP.2006.CL.1-109-30 |