by Laurel | December 26th, 2011
Holyoke Trolley
26 December 1914
Raising of Steam Railroad Fare to Springfield to 20 Cents Will Mean Big Loss of Patronage.
With the raising of the fare from 15 cents to 20 cents between Holyoke and Springfield by the Boston and Maine railroad, the new schedule to go into effect the first of the year, the Holyoke Street Railway will have to make arrangements for handling a considerably augmented patronage. The raise from the 10 to the 15 cent fare caused more business for the street railway company and the five cents extra now to be put on will cause still more of the passenger traffic to be diverted to the trolleys.
There has been a call for some time for a trolley express between Holyoke and Springfield, cutting out intermediate stops between the two cities and cutting down the time to some extent which it now takes to make the trip. Such a convenience would draw a good patronage, it is believed, and would take about all the passenger traffic between Holyoke and Springfield from the railroad. It seems to be thought in Holyoke that the Boston and Maine is practically throwing out local passenger trains and intend to run only though passenger and freight trains on the road. There would seem to be an opportunity for that road, could it be financed, to electrify the road between Greenfield and Springfield and enter into real competition with the trolleys with the probability of catching the larger part of the present trolley trade, but there also seems no immediate prospect that this will or can be done.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican, image copyright free from Archive.org used under Creative Commons.
