. Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation . onally burdensome load ofcapital. Meanwhile, the public is being less efficientlyserved than it might be had those formerly in control ofthe street-railway business been prevented from issuingunlimited cpiantities of stocks and bonds. The Street Railway Service and Fares are a Monopoly inEach City. —Street-railway transportation has always beena monopoly service even when there were several companiesoperating in the same city. At the present time, the eon-solidntion of the
. Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation . onally burdensome load ofcapital. Meanwhile, the public is being less efficientlyserved than it might be had those formerly in control ofthe street-railway business been prevented from issuingunlimited cpiantities of stocks and bonds. The Street Railway Service and Fares are a Monopoly inEach City. —Street-railway transportation has always beena monopoly service even when there were several companiesoperating in the same city. At the present time, the eon-solidntion of the street railways in each city striMigtliensthis monopoly, not because the natuie of tlie monopoly has URBAN ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 175 hvcu cliangrod, but because the consolidated company pos-sossin«j: the monopoly is more powerful than its severalpredecessors individually or collectively v^ere. Street-railway monopoly rests upon four bases. (1) Thecharter derived from the State necessarily gives a street-railway company the exclusive right over certain streetsand tlius within ceitain sections of tlie city. (2) Streot-. A Typical Station of the Philadelphia Elevated Railavay. railw^ay companies serving different sections of a city can-not compete with each other to much extent, because peopleliving in a particular section of a large city must patronizethe company serving that municipal district. (3) Street-railway transportation is a service for which there is uni-versal demand and for which there is no substitute. Con-ditions of life in our cities are now such that the streetrailways—surface, elevated, and subway—must be used by 13 176 ELEMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION practically everybody. (4) Competition in so far as it ispossible among street railways, is readily set aside byagreements as to fares or by the consolidation of the Philadelphia, for instance, thirty-nine companies werechartered between 1857 and 1874, and most of these com-panies constructed lines. But in 1
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjecttranspo, bookyear1920
