New-York tribune., 1902-12-27
THING ELEVATED TRAINS.


contribution to the discussion Of transit prob
| lens by publishing series of tables prepared
| by its reporters, based observations at var
| Gus stations of the intervals between elevated
| trains at different hours their style, and their
| condition as to crowding These observations
| were made on Tuesday and Wednesday last,
| when the weather was good and conditions
! generally were favorable to the normal opera
ton of the roads.
On the Sixth-ave. line, between and a. m.
| and and p. M, trains are supposed to run at
| intervals of one minute and forty-five seconds.
Yet it was not uncommon to find them three and
| four minutes apart. and then, Of course, they
| were jammed to the doors. At Fiftieth-st.
| southbound Harlem train at 7:04, the first Har-
lem train in eight minutes, was crowded. In four
minutes more another Harlem train was filed.
A minute later three car Fifty-eighth-st train
Just starting out with all Of its passengers
taken on at the station above had some vacant
seats in two cars, but there was an interval of
six minutes between the previous train and the
next Harlem train, and it arrived with plat
forms filed No Harlem train passed for eight
minutes before a badly jammed one at 7:30,
though two Fifty-eighth-st. trains had gone
down with vacant seats. And so it went
through the rush hours Of the morning. At
night account was taken of the southbound
L
minutes instead of minute and forty-fve sec
onds apart, and all the Harlem trains were
crowded. while almost all the Fifty-eighth-st
trains had vacant seats.
On the Ninth-ave line only twenty south
bound trains passed Thirty-fourth-st. between
and q. NJ. Thus they were three minutes
apart on the average though the schedule for
that line calls for two-minute intervals. Some
Of the trains were five minutes apart, all were
full, and some were packed. On the Third-ave
line in the same hour thirty-eght trains passed
Twenty-third-st going south, or more than the
schedule called for, and almost all were
jammed. While the road was apparently doing
all it could In Thirdave.. and could have carried
more passengers If its facilities had been bet
ter, it did not seem TO be making any extraor-
binary effort TO run many cars as it could in
Sixth-ave., and especially in Ninth-ave., even in
the rush hours, perhaps because It was thought
that everybody could some way other be
packed into cars at less frequent intervals than
it was possible to run them.
The disposition TO force crowding plainly
evident, except in Third-ave.. the minute the
worst rush was passed. In SiIth-ave. n Harlem
train, filed, went south by Fiftieth-st at 1924
a. IN. Not till 1032:30 did another train come
down from Harlem, and it was so crowded that
the gates could not be opened. Then came an
other IN TWO and a half minutes, and IL was
crowded, while still another one minute later
had vacant seats in three of the six cars. Like
wise. going north from Twenty-thrd-st- at
night, a train at 7:34 four-minute headway,
had women 1ammed on platforms" and even
earlier a Harlem train, the first in six minutes,
while one four minutes behind the single inter
vening Fifty-eighth-st. train, damned TO
guards" At about 10 a. N. Ninth-ave. trains
south, running four and five minutes apart,
were found jammed, while In the afternoon, be-
fore the rush hours. trains. though crowded,
were found to be three, six and even nine min
utes apart.
These figures show clearly that, though the
elevated railroad is able to run trains at one
and three-quarters and two minute intervals |
and does when it would otherwise have to |
turn away passengers willing to accept even |
cattle car conditions of crowding It cuts down |
its service SO that trains are run anywhere from
four TO ten minutes apart at hours when the |
traffic Is still sufficient to jam It's cars to the
guards. 1t evidently does not design to furnish |
seats for all its passengers even when 1t is |
physically possible. 1t has the cars but does |
not run them, preferring to make portion OF |
the public stand. These figures enforce the truth
of what we have already said about service In |
the non-rush hours. They point to a concen- |
trated demand for immediate improvement in |
that service as the proper direction for the ef |
forts of aroused public.