The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-13
A Novel System of Railroad Fares.
IRON, the Cape Cod Ite

Suppose you could go from Provincetown
to San Francisco by rail for $40, to Chicago
for $40. to Omaha for $l0s A letter costs
no more whether it is bound for one place
or the other. What it may lose on the long
haul it makes up on the short. Why cannot
transportation companies do the same?
Why not buy railway tickets as you do
postage stamps! Does all this seem absurda
Yet European country has adopted sim
liar plan, and it is spreading throughout
continental Europe.
The change to which I refer is novel
system of railway charges which has been
in operation in Hungary for a little more
than six months. The experiment. though
radical, has apparently been successful.
Passenger rates on a majority of the Hun
garia1 roads are no longer based upon the
cost of service or upon what the traffic will
bear, or even upon the mileage. The rates
are regulated according to the $50 10 sys-
tenn" This system has been advocated by
economists in Austria and Germany for
some years, but none of the railroad COM
panies was induced to take it UP. The state
railroads of Hungary, however, had been
ing badly under the old system; the earn
ings fell from s., 300 mile in 1887 to $1,000
in 1883. and the government felt that mat
ters could not be worse than they were.
The zone system of charges is based upon
the theory that there are two classes of
passenger traffic which can be increased in
volume-the passengers travelling a very
short distance and those going very long
distance. The former are generally pro-
vided for on railroads by Communication
rates; the latter have not received attention
heretofore. A further point advanced by
the advocates of the zone system is that
where the cars are not occupied to their full
capacity an increase of traffic necessitates
only an infinitesimal increase of expenses.
al IF ff1a
posed three zones-a short one, long one,
and medium one. The Hungarian rail-
roads extended the idea somewhat by iSSu-
ing two classes of tickets, those for zones
and those for snort distances In the latte
class were two tickets, one carrying the
holder to the next station, and sold for
5 cents, "a cents and Is cents
for third, second AMI first class,
and another carrying the holder to the sec
ond station for ~, IL and 20 cents for the
three classes, respectively. These tickets
are good between any two contiguous sta
tions without regard to the actual distance.
and are sold it bulk at and 10 per cent.
discount The zones are fourteen in num-
Der, the circles being drawn about ten miles
apart. The fourteenth zone includes all
distances of l40 miles and over. Tie rate
for the first zone is Very low-leSs than
seveD-tenthS of a cent mile for the lowest
class, and one and six-tenths cents for first
class expreSs-and increases more than in
proportion 10 the distance through the diff
ferent zones until the distance at the four
teenth ranges from l cent to 80 cents per
mile for the $50 miles. Beyond this the
rate again decreases, owing to the fact that
any additional distance is not charged for
Thus a trip Of several hundred miles may
be made for the same price as one of 140
=. This innovation swent into effect Aug.
l, of lest year, aud was Introduced on the
state lines-about one-half the total mileage
of the country. Two private companies have
since adopted the zone system. During the
first month of the new tariff the number of
pa sengers carried on the state lines was in
creased half a million, and the passenger
receipts were increased about 100000
At the present writing the report of the
Austro-Hungarian minister of commerce
is just to hand. From this report it an
pears that the passenger receipts of the
Hungarian railways for 1889 were 50. 1881
los forms, an increase of nearly a nj lion
forms over those of 1888; this is in the face
of reduction of rates equal to more than
so per cent. The new system was in effect
during only five months of 1885, This
extraordinary reduc ion and extraordinary
increase have excited the amazsment oflthe
railway world. Several foreign RAILWAYS
have sent representatives to Hungary
TO examine into the results of the change
ard report on them.