City Hall Forces Transit Upgrade
After years of complaints about 'rattletraps,' the City Council orders the Tacoma Railway & Power Company to replace its McKinley Park fleet.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
New cars must be placed on the McKinley Park car line, and more of them. That was the order of the city council last night to the T. R. & P. Councilman Giblett says he has grown weary of beseeching the street car officials for better service and last night he was observed early in the evening digging through the city law books. He finally got what he wanted and then conferred with Assistant City Attorney Baker. When the proper time arrived, he sprang a resolution on the council ordering the T. R. & P. to put modern cars on this line and furnish more of them. 'We don't do it on the others, but we can on this. The franchise provides that the council may order additional cars when the business requires it and also that the cars must be up to date. Now the cars they have on this line are old rattletraps and I am tired of it,' said Giblett.
“Now the cars they have on this line are old rattletraps and I am tired of it.”
Transit advocacy remains a central pillar of Tacoma politics. Just as Councilman Giblett leveraged franchise law in 1909 to force upgrades, modern Tacoma residents continue to debate the quality, frequency, and reach of public transportation in our growing corridors.
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