1908 - Tidewater Loses

[NW Mailing List]

Roanoke Times - January 3, 1908

TIDEWATER LOSES

Will Have No Advantage in Rates on Coal

   The Interstate Commerce Commission, sitting in New York, has 
blocked the Virginian (Tidewater) Railroad in its plan to open its 
Kanawha and Red River coalfields at a slight advantage over 
competitors, and to do it at the expense of the Chesapeake and Ohio, 
with which it was sought to force through routes and divisions of rates.
   The complainant in the case was the Loup Creek Colliery Company, 
and the defendants were the Virginian Company and the Chesapeake and 
Ohio. Although an effort to show the coal corporation was owned by 
the Virginian was not successful, it was significant that its claims 
were backed by that railroad company. The complaint prayed for 
through rates from Page. W. Va., on the Virginian, and that they be 
the same as the Chesapeake and Ohio was making for all of the mines 
in the Kanawha district to all points outside of West Virginia.
   Among other things, the commission says in its ruling:
  "The effect of granting the relief sought would be to reduce the 
joint through rates from Page on the Virginian to all points on the 
Chesapeake and Ohio, outside of West Virginia, down to the separate 
individual rates of the latter from points on its line in this 
district at the entire expense of the Chesapeake and Ohio, and at the 
same time to relieve the shipper located on the Virginian of all 
expenses in reaching the Chesapeake and Ohio."
   The commission further says that to make such a ruling as the 
Virginian sought would totally be to disregard the long-established 
practice recognized as reasonable and just by legislatures, railway 
commissions and the courts, as well as by carriers, of allowing two 
or more railroads which make up a through line to charge somewhat 
more for the through transportation, the earnings of which must be 
divided among them, than would be deemed reasonable and sufficient 
for the transportation if performed by a single road.
   The effect of this decision will be to quiet the anxiety and 
apprehension of railroads generally with respect to the important 
power the commission now has of compelling through routes, rates and 
divisions of rates. - Richmond Evening Journal


-----------------------------------

- Ron Davis, Roger Link