N&W in 1911--Bluefield station

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
January 1, 1911

[EDITORIAL]

THE PASSENGER STATION
-------
    It has long been quite a problem, no doubt, for the railroad people to control and regulate the traffic at the passenger station in this city.  Conditions exist there that are no doubt the most trying.  The depot has almost ceased to serve as a waiting room for travelers and has become a loafing place for many who have nothing else for the time to do.  The ladies' waiting room is overrun by men who stand and stare at those who must wait for trains.  These men march back and forth, often making the narrow passage way between the waiting room and that intended to be  reserved for women almost impossible.  The railroad people and city officers use their efforts to preserve order and try such regulations as will prevent annoyances, but the trouble lies to a great extent in the arrangement of the building.  It is more convenient for the public generally to use the ladies waiting room.  If the doors to that were kept closed and all made to enter the general waiting room from the street on the one side and from the platform on the other, and provide a swinging door across the end of the passage way into which the ticket window opens it might bring about a better condition.  This door should bear a sign "For ladies only."  It is not only the men about the city who are responsible for this, but men concerned with the railroad contribute something to the congestion and annoyance encountered there.
    The best thing, however, would be a new depot, one in keeping with the city's importance.  There is this about buildings that are old and out of date as the Bluefield depot is.  They cannot be kept in such a sanitary condition as experience and research in the past few years have found they should be kept.  Such buildings are not respected by the people to an extent that public regard will aid in keeping them clean.  All classes and kinds use such public buildings and they have no care.  The Bluefield depot has reached a stage where something really ought to be done. The railroad not only owes it to its customers, the traveling public and the city, but to itself.
------
Gordon Hamilton
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20100622/793ff23f/attachment.html>