Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-26
THE HUNGARIAN EXAMPLE.

THE HUNGARIAN EXAMPLE.
The Hungarian zone system OF railway
fares is attracting considerable attention in
this country as a novel system of regulating
charges According to the statements
which have been published, it applies only
| to passenger ira ffic, and operates as follows:
! From given central point, the area within
| the first fifteen miles constitutes the first
zone, and each succeeding zone has width OF
! about ten miles. Tickets are sold good from
the central point 70 each zone and from one
zone to another, and can be used to any
station within the terminal zone. The rates
reported for third class passage are surpris-
ingly low for the short distances, and in
crease by such slight additions that the
salient feature of the system is really the
cheapness of passenger rates.
1t is claimed that the zone system permits
diminution OF the number of tickets which
a central railway office must keep on hand
from an average of about 200 to 90, and that
under the system the tickets are placed on
sale like postage stamps. These two features
make large decrease lin the expenses of
ticket agencies, and thus make up in part
for the lowering of rates, which is exempli-
fed by the statement that the rate under
this system for a distance like that from
New York to Chicago would be only 81 80.
The effect of this reduction which, it should
be said, is on the Government railways of
Hungary, has been to increase travel SO
enormously that the receipts of the railways
are is per cent larger than under the old
system.
So far as the division of railway distances
into zones is concerned, it is evidently
based on the same principle as that applied
in the establishment of the forty-mile
radius on the coal traffic of this vicinity.
The advantages and disadvantages of that
form of the principle was fully discussed
about a year ago. There is an apparent
hardship in charging a shipper vino ships
freight ITO miles as much as the one who
ships it 100. The application of the system
as it is ampliied iu Germany, would in
both freight and passenger traffic meet the
complication that our railroads make
rates for distances running up into
the thousands of miles, while the Hungarian
system only covers a territory about half as
large as that over which the Pennsyl vania
Railroads system extends. If the railroads
of the United States should undertake to
apply the zone system in either ten, twenty
or thirty mile zones all over the country, it
would come nearer to establishing a pro-
gressiye distance tariff than anything which
has yet been proposed.
The really salient feature of the Hun
garian system is its demonstration of the in
crease OF business that can be secured by q
radical reduction of rates. The same lesson
/ has been taught in this country by such
steps as the reduction of fares by cable roads
and the increase of travel when rate wars
cut passenger fares in two. The eame pr1n-
cipIe has operated In the freight business,
for, without resorting to the form of the zone
system, except in such scattered instances
as the radical rate already referred to, the
railways of this country have reduced
freight charges to lower level than in
Europe, and have found an immense advan-
tage in doing SO. For some reason, perhaps
because the American sovereign, when he
travels, cares more to do it in princely
style than to make his money take
him as far as he can, there has
not been a proportionate lowering
of passenger rates. The DISPATCH has
heretofore expressed its conviction that if
passenger charges were brought down in a
degree corresponding to freight charges the
railroads would find the increase of travel
more than adequate compensation for the
reduction; and the Hungarian example is
corroboration of that claim.
In view of the fact that certain gentlemen
seem to think that the division of railway
distances into zones contains the especial
charm which makes such reduction possi-
BILE, it is worth while to point out that the
zone feature is merely form, and not
necessarily the form best suited to the long
| distances OF our railway system. The reduc-
| garian system could be more radically at
tained by making a universal mileage
! ticket at such a rate as would attract the
travelling public, while for those who wish
to take stated short journey daily, our ccm-
mutation system duly liberalized can reach
the same end. The vital lesson which we
can learn from Hungary is that radical
and general reduction of passenger charges,
accompanied by universal pruning of
costly agencies resulted in increased earn
ings. That is an example which the rail-
roads can follow, aud will follow, when
competition makes them.