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Senate Endorses Meigs Road
Meigs Elevated Railway News
FAVORING THE L SCHEME.
The Street Railway Committee.
Captain Meigs Issues an Appeal to the Senators to Give Him Fair Play.
Indorses the Meigs Plan.
...
"The members of the Legislature were treated to a genuine surprise yesterday on a bill for the Meigs elevated railway. It was known that the committee was in favor of a road, and a general bill was expected. Instead of that the friends of the measure contented themselves with a bill permitting the erection of a road between Boston and Cambridge, and asked for nothing further. Last year, and in all previous years, when the measure had been brought up, one of the chief arguments of the opponents was that the bill was too general and permitted too much, many of them going so far as to say that they would have no objection to the road if it could be built where there was an unquestionable demand for it. To meet this objection the friends of the road determined this year to bring in a bill against which no such objection would hold. Cambridge's representatives and senators have time and again urged the adoption of an elevated railroad bill of some sort, and as Cambridge has for years demanded rapid transit it was finally decided to test the sincerity of the opposition by restricting permission to build to some point in Cambridge, from Bowdoin square in Boston. It was also determined to put in very stringent provisions, one of which was that at least one mile of road must be completed, and, with rolling stock, thoroughly tested to the satisfaction of the railroad commissioners before any portion could be built in Boston; also, that, at any time within a year, the aldermen in either city might, if they so desired, compel the railroad to remove the road at its own expense, and leave the streets in the same condition as before the road was erected; furthermore, that one-half the capital stock should be paid in before work begun. The friends of the road claimed that they would submit to almost any restrictions and limitations, providing only that they might be given an opportunity to demonstrate the value of Captain Meigs' invention, and they declare their belief that the Legislature cannot fail to grant the desired charter."
Source: Boston Globe, January 30, 1884
