12 



ranged accordingly, we should have, with the existing C P. R. service, 

 the following schedule, taking specific days and places for clearness : 



St. Catharines to North Bay, 1 p-m. Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday; 

 North Bay to Fort William, 2 p.m. Saturday to 4.30 a.m. Monday; Fort 

 William to Winnipeg, 5-30 a.m. Monday to 7.40 a-m. Tuesday. To be 

 unloaded and delivered on trucks, or placed on siding Wednesday morning. 

 This would give a service of four or five days, instead of seven to eight 

 days, as with the two experimental cars, and often longer as with ordinary 

 shipments. Such a schedule ; s the above is perfectly feasible, and would 

 require' over the Grand Trunk portion of the line the establishment of a 

 reasonably prompt through freight, and over the Canadian Pacific only the 

 use of existing schedules. 



The history of the second car was similar. It left North Bay on the 

 afternoon of September 18, and according to schedule should have reached 

 Winnipeg on the morning of the 21st. It reached its destination some- 

 time on the 22nd, and was finally placed for unloading on the 23rd, seven 

 days after loading. 



These facts are reported not in any spirit of complaint, but simply to 

 place upon record the conditions that surround freight traffic to the North- 

 west. It is quite obvious that over such an immense stretch of road, and 

 with so large a volume of business as these' companies control, accidents 

 and delays occur that are unavoidable. It is, however, within the limits 

 of reasonable expectation that a five day service for tender fruits be ar- 

 ranged from Southern Ontario to Winnipeg. 



A report of these facts was sent to the Assistant Freight Traffic Man- 

 ager of the C. P. R. and it elicited the following reply : 



Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of your favor of the 8th, and am glad to learn 

 the shipment of fruit to Winnipeg under your supervision proved a success. 



In answer to your remarks regarding refrigeration, I would say it is ex- 

 pected and required that shippers will fully ice the cars at the point of ship- 

 ment. If they instruct that the cars are to be re-iced in transit we will under- 

 take to do this at each inspection and icing station, a list of which I gave you, 

 and where necessary the bunkers will be replenished with ice. You will under- 

 stand, of course, that varying weather conditions have a marked effect upon the 

 ice in the cars, and it is very desirable that even though the temperature may 

 be cool at the time of shipment the shippers should see a full supply of ice is put 

 in the cars, because a change might take place before the next icing station is 

 reached, and unless the bunkers are full, the ice may have disappeared before 

 we have had an opportunity of inspecting or re-icing. 



With regard to the time in transit. So far as our line is concerned from 

 North Bay to Winnipeg, there is no reason, barring accident, why we cannot 

 keep our schedule in the handling of fruit cars. You will understand, however, 

 in a haul of such a length interruption may occur from time to time from 

 causes over which we have no control. Fruit and other perishable freight is in- 

 variably handled on our line under red cards, and is followed by telegraph 

 through each divisional point by our Superintendent of Car Service to insure 

 despatch. We could not undertake to guarantee the time in transit. We will 

 undertake, however, so far as we can, to see that fruit is given the best 

 possible despatch at the time of handling. Your suggestion that we might run a 

 special service once a week or oftener has already been found to be imprac- 

 ticable. We endeavored to establish such a service on a previous occasion, but 

 found we could not induce the shippers to guarantee a sufficient number of 

 cars to enable us to carry it out. In fact the dealers seemed to be disinclined to 



