A Streetcar Line Asks Seattle for Fifty Years and No Streetlights
The Union Trunk line petitions the city council to extend its franchise from twenty-five to fifty years and drop its obligation to light the streets along its routes.
M. H. Young, president of the Union Trunk line, filed a petition with the city clerk Friday asking the council to grant the company a new franchise. The new ordinance would principally extend the term from twenty-five to fifty years and abrogate the requirement that the company light the streets along its routes. In exchange for the favors asked, the company would pay the city a percentage of its gross receipts. The petition is similar in many respects to the one asked for by the Consolidated company.
“The new ordinance would principally extend the term from twenty-five to fifty years and abrogate the requirement that the company light the streets along its routes.”
Long-term utility and transit franchises — and what private companies owe the public in return — remain a live Seattle argument. The streetlights clause is a reminder that even small public benefits can become bargaining chips in a fifty-year deal.
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