| Friday, April 24, 1931, Vol. 80, No. 12 | The Newmarket Era | Page 2, col. 4 |
Where is radial scheme
T.T.C demand for 55 cents per car mile operated puts end to dream.
Sometimes it is difficult to identify a stone wall, even after you have hit it—`especially a radial stone wall. Adam Beck and the whole pack of radialeers had that experience. In a publicly cheaper way, Newmarket Town Council seemed likely to join the Beck class, over the acquisition of the junk between here and Richmond Hill, and the resurrection of twelve miles of operating railroad south from the heart of town.
The situation is really controlled by the Toronto Transportation Commission, which held the old Metropolitan for the city of Toronto, and which operates the bus lines to Lake Simcoe and Barrie, from which Newmarket obtains service. The T.T.C. offers to operate the radial from Newmarket to Richmond Hill for 55 cents per car mile. Its rate for just about the same distance from Richmond Hill to the top of Toronto Yonge Street is 35 cents.
Fifty five cents is a prohibitive price. Could Newmarket do the job itself? It couldn't be done, with their surplus energy by Inspector Smith and Orval Smart. To complete with the T.T.C., alias the Gray Line Coaches, would mean independent indeterminable capital outlays that no sane preacher of economy at Council Board or on Nomination night, would advocate. We'd have to get other municipalities to go in with us on this. Who thinks he could put the radial roar into Aurora? Or make Whitchurch or King pay together in unity?
Wise men come to bury, not to buy the radial. That segment of the electrical age is closed; and the tax rate is being pared. This is one of the things for which there isn't plenty of room at the top.