The San Francisco call., 1906-12-30
How Passenger Traffic Pays Better
Than Freight


There is an absurd popular notion that no
steam railroad makes any considerable profit on
its passenger traffic. but the new Chsesgo-New
York Electric Road will quickly prove that such
is not the case, and, that by special equipping
for passenger traffic it can be made to pay far
more than freight does. The reason passenger
traffic on the great trunk line steam roads yields
no profit TO speak OF is not because there is no
money in the carrying Of passengers, but be-
cause the roads having been conceived and built
with no consideration for passenger requirements
and with freight the beginning and end Of the
roads commercial desire, the two classes of
tonnage don't work well together. When a
flyer makes a sensational run under present
railroad conditions it orten means that all
freight trains for a distance Of hundred
miles have TO be run TO siding or otherwise
shifted out Of the danger until the passen-
ger train gets by. This almost incal-
cuIable loss, a loss that certainly does kill the
profit that would otherwise accrue.
Then again. the steam routes. being freight
routes first. last and all the time, have to go
where the freight is, no matter how many SER
pentine twists and turns divert them from the
pathway of directness Passengers not only have
0A1|~~SSoA@~J ~@~
way, but are shifted around curves, gullies and
mountains that forever render an extremely high
speed out of the question. The simple fact.
therefore, is that passenger traffic will pay and
pay well, even II never a pound Of freight were
carried, if the route were only direct one and
no delay of ffty-car freight trains. some of them
with perishable goods, caused by the high
speed trains.
When a manufacturer ships freight under
present conditions, a strange process ensues.
Freight may go over half dozen roads and
many miles out Of its way before 1t reaches
its destination. Most Of the roads are MEM
bers of great freight pools or trusts which ope-
rate within certain spheres of influence" !"
Business is divided up, the profits being por-
toned out in accordance with factor sched-
ule, and the freight going over whichever pool
route the situation demands. When load Of
freight starts for New York from Chicago by
way Of let us say, the Erie" man can
predict how many other routes than the Erie 1t
will run over before it reaches the end Of its
tourney; and IT matters not so long as 1t gets
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS time. But 1T DOES mat
ter to passengers whether or not they have to
tolerate such beating around the bush. When a
passenger ~
get there DIRECTLY, and. therefore, the pas
senger trains of existing roads pick their way
through sea Of freight trains. cattle cars on
siding here, fruit ''spur" there, all
being delayed 70 the extent Of hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
What a blessing, then 1t will be when the
new Chicago New York Electric Air Line flashes
its clean luxurious trains betewen Chicago and
New York City ct the marvellous speed of
serenfy-fve miles an hour. some Of them max
ing no stops II freight is ever carried it viii
be over exclusive freight tracks, ample space
for which has been provided. The territory
traversed by the new electric line is the most
densely populated in the country and the bulk
of all the traffic both freight and passenger,
from Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Philadelphia
and other large cities will ultimately be car
ried by this route. 1t has been shown by the
work Of the "2oth Century Flyer" Of the New
York Central that there are plenty OF people
willing to pay the so per cent extra charges
required on this train; what. then. will be the
natronsge Of road that carries one from