The record-union., 1894-06-12
RAPID TRANSIT Tn new YORK.
Hampered Because of Suspicion of
the Government.
The People Denounce the Service On
the Roads But Prevent Additional
Facilities-Capitalists Quit.

Regular Correspondence OF REcoRD-UNIoN.I
New York, June 2.-If New Workers
believed that any Act of the Legislature,
or any human beings in commission,
could give their city rapid transit, they
would have rejoiced visibly when the
Governor signed the so-called Chamber
of Commerce rapid transit bill. That
measure, now law, amends the original
Act of 1891 so far as to give the city new
commission of eight members in place Of
the old one with four; it enables the COM
mission to pay in part or in full for the
construction of road, to lease the road
when built for twenty years. then to re-
new the lease or buy or sell the whole
plant. These, with some further details,
also granted, were all that the critics of
the old law declared were necessary to
assure rapid transit. But everybody is
skeptical. Though adequate means of
transportation is the greatest physical
want the city suffers, though every in
terst, corporate or individual, except the
other railroads and car-line companies,
feel the want daily, no one displayed the
slightest flush of Joy when the news of
the Governors approval of the bill
reached here.
The reason is a simple one. If the
phrase suggests, as it ought, increased
values of uptown real estate, increased
comforts, lower rents, wider choice of To-
cations for homes, IL suggests also disap-
pointmenLs, difficulties, Investigations,
legal proceedings and recriminations.
The struggle for rapid transit has been a
hard one, and it is hard to understand
why it has not been attained long before
this. Political, financial and physical
reasons have been given for its failures,
but it seems to me the obstacles are
merely human-weakly, not wickedly.
human. Anyway that is the impression
/ get from my attendance at every meet
ing for fourteen months of the old conf
mission. 1t is rational to suppose the
same difficulties will arise in the new
board and that the history of the ''eight"
will be very like that of the four" un-
less it is twice as complicated. If so,
some explanation of the past, with an ac-
count OF the situation, will give an in
sight into the echoes you will hear of the
contests over the question during the
next year or two.
New York is a long, thin city that
would tend naturally to grow taller and
more slim were it not for the lack of facil-
tiles of transportation. For it stretches
northward, in the direction men prefer to
60, along the Hudson River. Already it
the Battery, though it covers only forty
two square miles on the official map.
That is because it is only about three
miles broad, the greatest breadth being
four and half miles. These dimensions
show how necessary it is to have speedy
connection between the extremities of
the city, and also between points all
along the line through the city's middle.
At present the Manhattan Elevated and
that make any pretense at rapid trans
portation. The latter is an almost per-
feet service so far as 1t goes and where
physical conditions allow. But il comes
down only to Forty-second street and
then turns passengers for the business
portion of the city either into the elevated
Third-avenue line, which feeds only the
east side of Broadway, or into slow sur
face lines. From Forty-second street up
town it is real rapid transit. making few
stops and travelling at high speed. But
even here there are great draw backs. Its
route to One Hundred and F'itty-fifth
street is in a tunnel. Everything possi-
ole is done to ameliorate the evil inside
and out. The company has learned how
to close a car almost absolutely, and
above it has covered the tunnel with d
fenced-in strip of grass, trees and flow
ers, making Park avenue one of the most
beautiful streets to live on. At frequent
intervals openings are made for the es-
cape of smoke and gases, but all the dirt
and sickening odors do not hurry out.
In the summer it is ten minutes of real
physical suffering to ride through the
tunnel. The closed doors and windows,
though almost sealed, admit just enough
gas to make the hot, close air inside pain
ful to breathe. Soft coal is used; Mr..
Depew says no other serves the purpose,
so this drawback is fully described. As
for the rest, the trains are frequent and
the seating capacity is adequate, but the
line runs off the island of Manahatta be-
fore the top is reached and carries passen-
gers and the development of the city on a
long roundabout curve along the north
ern bank of the Harlem River and Spuy-
ten Duyvil Creek to the Hudson. After
that out-of-the-way swing all is well.
But that is an important deficiency in this
mode of transit.
Then there is the Manhattan "L,'' as it
is called, one of the most attractive and
fitting systems of local transportation
ever devised but the most abused service
in the country. Its passage through the
air insures light, fresh air and actually
presents some magnificent views, that
people care to enjoy them. The road is
excellently managed, as any railroad
man will tell you, as he marvels at the
amount of traffic the limited surface
space and legal privileges cannot prevent
the road from carrying. The trains may
not have more than five cars each.
Terminal facilities and switches are few.
ct the trains are run minute apart in
the busy hours between and 9:30 4. NJ.
and $3.50 and P, N. A train enters one
station when a second is midway be-
tween that and the next stop, and a third
is at the second station. Moreover few
express trains are run on middle tracks
whenever Tor mile or two they are al
lowed to be built. There are several
crossings of roads at Chatham Square.
Despite these dangers no serious accident
ever has happened on the elevated. 1t is
one OF the safest railroads in the world,
as its record shows.
1t is daily damned by thousands OF
men because of circumstances it cannot
and, be it granted, would not always
overcome. 1t has too much traffic for its
capacity. Every one knows New York
ers who live up town spend an hour q
day hanging by a strap, to be pushed.
stepped on and filed with disgust at his
fellowmeD. Women are the chief suffer
ers and men with wives and sisters see
too much of what other women are sub
jected to to have any patience with any
thing connected with the a." Scenes
on the crowded train have been pictured
and described often enough to be famil-
lar all over the country, but it is not gen.
eraliy Known bnat Tue game OF nuInau
beings has developed species of evil
known here as the 'L'' vice. It is this
that makes man furious when they dis
cuss rapid transit, and makes them want
TO make q step toward political govern
ment to overcome the existing condi-
tions-this they do when they suggest
city ownership or construction of rail-
road.
AS for the rapidity of travel by the ele-
waited roads, that is subject OF sneers.
The ride. especially if it extend to the end
of the roads, is inexpressibly tedious
when taken twice every day and some
times twice in the evening again. The
speed is only a little more than that OF a
4.