More than Half Way

New York, 1895

HOW THE RAILROAD COMPANY MET THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN.

Austin Corbin's Counsel Surprised the Brooklyn Officers by Offering to do Everything Demanded of the Company by the Board of Aldermen.

The Brooklyn board of Alderman passed an ordinance last Monday, on motion of Alderman Walkley, to regulate the use of Atlantic avenue by railroads. The ordinance is now before the mayor for his approval. William J. Kelly, the counsel, and Everitt R. Reynolds, the general manager of the Long Island railroad company, called on the mayor in reference to the matter. Alderman Walkley was also present. Mr. Kelly said that he called in no technical spirit, but simply to have an informal talk over the resolution. He wished to maintain the pleasant relations between the city officials and the railroad.

Mr. Kelly then went over the ordinance clause by clause. He said his company agreed that no street should be closed for more than three minutes at a time and that the blowing of whistles and the ringing of bells should not be permitted. It was also agreed that no freight or passenger car detached from an engine should remain longer than ten minutes in any public street. The use of soft coal had already been discontinued. Mr. Kelly said that the company agreed that all streets now closed should be reopened at once. He understood this to refer to streets crossing Atlantic avenue.

Every time the company had been requested by the aldermen to open such streets they had done so and they would continue to do so in the future. With regard to the portion of the ordinance providing that at each street crossing or walk across the tracks men should be stationed at all hours of the day and night when trains were in motion, and that strong and heavy gates at least twenty feet in width should be placed at each crossing and closed before the passage of any engine or train, Mr. Kelly said that the company was willing to give perfect compliance, although the gates would mean a large expense.

A clause of the ordinance provides that "whenever platforms are placed in streets for the accommodation of passengers, the railroad company shall, at its own expense, keep the entire street between the platform and the curb free from dirt wherever paved." Mr. Kelly said his attention had been called in this particular to the Bedford avenue station, and walks would be put there by the company. Mr. Kelly then said that an important part of the ordinance which it might be found impossible to fulfil was that trains should not cross street intersections oftener than once in ten minutes. A long discussion followed this statement, but the upshot of the matter was that upon a suggestion of the mayor, General Manager Reynolds agreed to rearrange his timetables coming both ways so that trains would not cross streets oftener than once in five minutes.

Mr. Kelly said that during the past year there had been only one fatal accident in Brooklyn, and in that case the man deliberately went under the closed gates. The company ran 400 trains a day in the summer and carried 4,200,000 passengers.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.