The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-27
NEW YORK CAR FARES
OYER $50, 600 EXPENDED IN THE
METROPOLIS D1ILY.

lion Passengers Every Twenty-four
Hours.
The rapid growth of New York city
during the past twenty years, with its
accompanying increase of population,
has made the expenditure FOR ear fare a
very serious item to wage earners,
nearly all of whom are compelled to
pay ten cents on every working day in
order to save time and fatigue. This
means yearly expense of thirty dol
lars for each individual, while there
are many thousands of men and wo-
men whose business necessitates their
spending from fifty to one hundred dol
lars per annum. Few travellers in the
cars of the elevated, cable or horse-car
lines pay any attention to the amount
OF money they eXpend in journeying
to and fro in this great metropolis. 1t
is only nickel at time, but the total
receipts of all the lines runs up into
millions Of dollars, and these figures
are increasing each year at ratio that
is extraordinary,
A person can now travel over the
elevated railroads for a single fare,
from the Washington Heights viaduct
down to the Battery and up again on
the east side of the city, almost as far
as fremont. BY the cable and horse
car routes passenger is carried from
the postofflce to Fort Washington, or
from the Battery to the Harlem river,
The present system of transfers also en-
ables person to reach almost any part
of the city, from, q given point. for the
small sum of five cents. Compared
with the people of other nations, Amer
leans are proverblally extravagant in
their small expenses, and one of the
surprises experienced by foreigners is
our apparent waste of money in en-
ploying the street cars for travelling
| comparatively small distances. 1t is
this disinclination among Americans to
exercise their legs that makes the prof
it of our street railroads so large
The growth of this system Of travel
has kept pace during the past thirty
one years with the steady increase in
population and the progress of the up
town movement, while during the past
decade the ratio of increase has been
even greater. The population of the
city of New York in 1865 was estimated
to be S26,400. There were then running
the Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and
Eighth avenue horse cars, with termi-
nj at Fifty second, Forty ninth and Six
ty-sixth streets, passengers going to
Harlem paying extra fare on cars run
ming at fifteen or twenty-five minutes
Roadway Ominbusses also ran up
Broadway from the Wall and Fulton
street ferries as far as Twenty-third
street. Even then the travel was re-
munerative to the companies, for dur
ing this, the last year of the war, the
horse cars carried daily average of
264,S07 passengers. who paid fare of
six cents, or $15,SSS.42 each twenty-four
hours, all the lines carrying 1864, 555
passengers during the entire twelve
months, and receiving therefore $5,799,
26330. The census of 1870 placed the
city population at 942, 292, and the trav-
ell on street cars during that year
amounted to 1863, $50 passengers per day
which at the five cent fare, caused an
expenditure of 1S,179.10. BY that time
other lines were opened to meet the in
creased demand, the total number of
passengers carried during 1870 being
1872 707, $50, which yielded a revenue of
| $6, 635, 36t So
over Million In 1875
New York passed the million mark in
1875. the estimate for population rising
to 1.045, 800. More street railroads went
into operation, and the daily average
for passengers rose to 1885, paying
| s24s2S.95 for the daily service, the ag-
gregate for the year being ISL, PSI 1913,
with a total in earnings of $9.061 566 .75
The census of 1880 gave New York a
population of 1,206, 500, when there We're
| 67S692 passengers per day, with re-
ceipts of $50, 934 go, the earnings for that
year being $123S6, 1880, on 247,722,5
passengers. The increase in ratio of
travel to population was due to the
opening of the elevated railroads.
which were thought to be a perfect so
luton of the rapid transit problem
| On an estimated population of .377,-
400 in 1885 there were 914,019 passengers
carried per day on an expenditure for
| fares of s45, 70075, the total number of
| passengers during that year being $685.
| $685.. with total In earnings of $16,-
$50, 816.75. In 1890 the United States
census gave the city a population of
| / ,513501, while the health board Stats
tics placed 1t at 631 1872, and the police
| enumeration 1,7l0715. During 1890
| there were carried AIS, 256. $50 passen-
ers, with earnings of $20,912,61 so
This shows a daily average of 1,t5S, 6S6
| persons, who paid S57.43i.30.
| The state enumeration in 1892 gave
| the city population of 1,S00.S91 an in
| crease Of 2S7, 800 over the United States
| census of 1890. Taking this ratio as a
| guide the population was 2.29l 800 in
| 1895. During that year there was a
| daily average of 1,46O,902 passengers,
| and they paid the lines ST3,0451o each
day, for on all the roads there were
! carried 533, 239, $40 passengers, the total
earnings being no less than $26, SCI, 5l5.-
| so. AS the ratio of increase in popula-
| ton is apparently nearly $50, 600 per an
mum. it is quite safe to estimate the
present total at 2,3SO,0O0, while the ag-
| gregate Of car passengers for 1896 will
be about 56S, 49, with earnings of $2S,-
437, $50.
The Daily Average
| This gives q daily average of /. $50. 900
passengers and an expenditure of ST.