Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-01-19
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
is the Metz OpOlis AT Last 10 Have Real
Rapid Transit!

"'S hhNc before NOW-All Lines,
cable, Horse, Electric and 81"
Terribly Crowded In Rush Hours.
NEW YORK, Jan. Especial. 1-Once
more there seems to be some probable
liy that the borough of Manhattan may
eventually be blessed with real rapid
transit in the form of tunnel. through
which electric trains will make swift
subterranean trips virtually from end
to end of the island.
Should this actually come to pass it
Will be by far the most important i'm
provement for many years. To hun
dreds of thousands it will transform
the place radically. TO these it will
rob each working day of its most tor
turing experiences getting to business
in the morning and getting home again
at night.
Mnnhnttnn's CIOEged Transit Lines.
1t is not going beyond bounds to use
the word torture in speaking of transit
in New York at the beginning and end
ing of the day. 1t is not only unbcar-
ably slow, but the physical discomforts
involved are very great, no matter
whether you travel 10y horse car cleo
trio car, the cable or the elevated. 1t
is true that the electric cars promised
relief and are actually Indispensable in
present conditions, but still the conges-
ton is so great in the rush hours of
the morning going south and of the
evening going north that it's worth
your life almost to attempt the jour
ney. Every train on the elevated ev-
cry car on the surface, is packed jam
full of human beings, all in a hurry
and all, except the relatively few who
are on the express trains, moving mt
little better than snaiIs pace.
Even the express train passengers
have a pretty disagreeable time of it.
They manage to get down town or up
town, as the case may be, in half an
hour or thereabout. but in the mean
time, through the terrible rush, they
are subjected to crowdlng incompara-
bly, worse than the crowding of beeves
into cattle cars. 1t is drawing it mild
ly to say that every train takes more
than twice as many passengers as it
has seats for. Only those get a chance
to sit down at all who board the cars
at the first station or two. Whether
those who sit or those who stand are
worse off is n question. Both have
troubles enough, but on the whole
those who stand, excepting those kept
on the platforms outside, probably
have slight advantage over the 9th
ers. The worst grievance of the
standing passenger is being crowded
a I'm n
measure, he can look out for himself
in the crush. The sitting passenger,
however is generally so incroached
upon by his neighbors that he cannot
find room to spread n newspaper
even, and besides he is constantly be
ing tramped upon by the ISLANDERS. His
sitting posture renders it impossible
for him to look out for himself little
bit in the crowd.
The express passenger who stands
outside at this time of year is really
in a deplorable situation. He is not
only subject to all the griefs of the
inside stander, but he also has to en-
dure a continuous blast of wind for
four or five miles that penetrates the
heaviest overcoat and makes liberal
doses of Quinine necessary in order to
stave off serious illness.
The Crowded Electric Lines.
There is no doubt that the crowded
electric lines have helped the transit
! situation in the middle of the day,
when the travel Is about equally divid-
ed between north and south. But at
morning and night the electric lines
are little, if any, faster than the old
north and south horse car lines were.
One of the greatest causes of delay
on the electric cars is furnished by the
various cross town lines used mainly
to transfer passengers between the
long trunk lines. The chief of these
cross town lines are at Twenty-third
street, Twenty-ninth street and Fifty
ninth street. In the rush hours cars
are run at not more than one minutes
Roadway on all the main lines both
north and south and cross town, and
as all the crossings are at grades, there
is a tremendous block at each one
The result is a constant long line Of
waiting cars at every crossing. At
Fourth avenue and Twenty-third
street the other day 1 counted 20 cars
waiting on Fourth avenue to cross
Twenty-third and % cars waiting on
Twenty-third to cross the avenue
There are about a dozen such
crossings on the island.
No Relief but In Tunnels.
1t is because of the delays at the
crossings, which average from 10 to
10 minutes each, that the electric cars
make such poor time in the rush hours.
From the postoffice to One Hundred
and Twenty-fifth street, a distance of
about seven miles, it sometimes takes
! hour and As minutes on the surface
| Persons who travel between such ex-
IRENE points, however, can use the ex-
press trains of the elevated, but the
man whose office is in the twenties
somewhere, east of Broadway, and
whose home is in the hundreds on the
west side, must use the surface cars
and transfer two or three times. 1t
will take him at least an hour, do the
best he can, to compass the distance
between home and business.
Moreover, this man can by no posi-
bility hope to get seat. He is lucky
to get a chance to hang on outside, by
his teeth, so to speak, and, owing to
| +ba snasmodic waV in which the cars