Olympia’s ‘Miserable’ Street Railway Is Holding the City Back
An 1891 editorial demands that the city cancel the Olympia Street Railway’s charter and clear Main and Fourth streets for electric cars, arguing the two rickety horse cars are a disgrace and a drag on growth.
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.
Port Townsend has a fine electric car system in operation and the cars for the street railway line at Centralia have arrived there. Both of these cities are much smaller than Olympia. We have none of the modern improvements in rapid transit here yet. If the city council will do something prompt in the way of grading streets on the Westside, the electric line there will soon be in operation; but what should be done immediately for the good of the state capital is to declare null and void the charter of the Olympia Street Railway company, have that miserable “system” removed from Main and Fourth streets and let the work go ahead of putting down an electric line.
Unless this is done, it is plain to be seen that we are to have the bobtail “system” remain on the two main thoroughfares all winter, providing the two rickety cars do not collapse altogether before the season is over. Such a line is a disgrace to the city. The city council is evidently being juggled with by this company. The promises made by its managers do not appear to pan out. The council should wake up and do something for the people. They favor rapid transit, and the want of it has retarded the growth of Olympia.
“Such a line is a disgrace to the city.”
Olympia’s fight over a streetcar franchise—whether a private company was serving the public or strangling growth—rhymes with modern debates over transit service, private operators, and who controls the public right-of-way. The complaint that the council was being “juggled” by a utility is not exactly unfamiliar.
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