Report Of The Special Committee Appointed To Investigate The Relations Between Cities And Towns And Street Railway Companies

Author : Charles Francis Adams
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780243334995
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (349 download)

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Download or read book Report of the Special Committee Appointed to Investigate the Relations Between Cities and Towns and Street Railway Companies written by Charles Francis Adams and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Report of the Special Committee Appointed to Investigate the Relations Between Cities and Towns and Street Railway Companies: February, 1898 The history of street railway legislation in Massachusetts shows the evolution of the law concerning them. The first grant made by the Legislature for the construction and operation of such a road in the public highways was that to the Metropolitan Railroad Com pany of Boston, created by authority of chapter 353 of the Acts of the year 1853, approved May 21 of that year. A similar charter was granted by chapter 383 of the Acts of the same year, approved May 25, to the Cambridge Street Railroad Company. These two companies, created at nearly the same time, were the only ones char tered in that year, but in the years immediately following many special charters were granted. The earlier of these are identical in form, and provide for certain privileges in the streets, and authorize the city authorities to impose certain restrictions upon the corpora tions. These charters provide that the mayor and aldermen shall determine in what streets the railway company may lay its tracks, the distance from the sidewalk at which the rails shall be laid, the grade and the gauge; and they contain, also, a provision that the mayor and aldermen shall at all times have power to make such regulations as to the speed of the cars and mode of use of the tracks as public safety and convenience may require. The company is given power to construct, maintain and use such tracks on the location granted by the municipal authorities; subject, however, to a pro vision that the existence of the corporation shall be limited to a period of fifty years from the date of the passage of the act. In the next year supplementary acts were passed for both of these companies, providing that at any time after the expiration of one year from the opening of the road for use the mayor and aldermen may by a majority vote determine that any of the track which the board sees fit shall be discontinued, and thereupon the tracks of the company shall forthwith be taken up and removed in conformity with the vote or order of the mayor and aldermen. In these supplementary acts it is also provided that notice shall be given to the abutters before any grant is made, and that rates of fare within the city of Boston shall never exceed five cents, unless by consent of the mayor and alder men. From this time the section relating to the revocation of the location was inserted in each new charter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.