Blaney, Patrick and Bethune Citizens Ask for More Trains to Stop

Additional local train service between Columbia and Hamlet on the Seaboard Air Line is sought by citizens of Blaney, Patrick and Bethune, and the South Carolina Railroad Commission has the matter under consideration and is making an effort to get additional trains by an adjustment of present schedules.

The conference was held Thursday with officials of the Seaboard, and following the conference Chairman Shealy, of the commission, stated that while the commission was anxious to give the towns on this part of the Seaboard the service they desired, he did not think the Seaboard could be ordered to put extra trains, because of the fact that the service does not produce sufficient revenue.

Recently two trains were taken off of this division. There is now only one train each way between Columbia and Hamlet. Before the discontinuance of the two trains it was shown by the records of the railroad company that the strains earned only 7.2 cents per mile, while the cost of operating the trains was $1.25 per mile.

The citizens of the towns along this route as that if extra trains cannot be put on, then through trains has stopped, but the railroad commission takes the position that this would be impractical, due to the small number of passengers traveling to and from these points and the loss of that would result to the railroad from the extra straps. No decision in the matter has as yet been rendered