Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-25
ELECTRIC RATES
10 HOURS FOR $40
GROUND BROKEN FOR FIRST
AIRLINE ROAD
Chicago to New York in a Flash-An-
other Forward Bound in This
Age of Electricity and
Progress

BY the turning of a sod with a sill
Yer spade on the first day of Sep
tember, 1906, in the state of Indiana
at Magee, near La Porte, was marked
a new epoch in the age of electricity.
For then and there was begun the
gigantic and unprecedented task of
constructing the first direct trunk line
railroad between Chicago and New
York, the longest electric-traction road
in the world, and the realization of
the fact that for long distance rapid
transit electricity is superior to steam.
This event shall go down in his
tory as a milestone in the march of
destiny, akin to that memorable 4th
of July, 1928, when Charles Carrollton,
the only surviving signer of the dec
laration of independence, lifted five
shovelfuls of earth with a silver spade
at the inception of building the pio-
neer passenger road in the United
States
That was the dawn of the era of
steam road traffic. Sixty years later
came the birth of the overhead troll
ley line. Within the past six years
the third-rail system has come into
vogue upon elevated roads and sub
ways where genuine rapid transit in
our crowded cities has become not d
luxury, but a necessity.
Electric Speed Demanded
The needs of the times call for
sWifter transportation and closer COM
munication between our great cities.
The through traffic between Chicago
and New York alone is enough now
to pay the operating expenses of a
direct express train service. The
question has been: Would it pay to
build a new road and equip 1t with
electric motors for the times to come
when this traffic shall vastly increase,
Il ha 11rnfitn hla tn
one of the existing steam roads by
the substitution of electric motored
trains?
The old lines have decided that they
could not afford to discard old meth
ods, while acknowledging the superior
ity of electric traction. So it has re-
manned for a new road to be con-
ceived and constructed.
Ten Hours from Chicago to New York
1t has been figured by experts that
an electric train can be speedily and
economically run from Chicago to New
York in ten hours time and that inn
mediate profits can be made at fare
of $40 for the single trip. Nothing
impossible is projected. Most of the
saving in time will be made by the
shortening of distance. The steam
road route via New York Central and
Lake Shore roads is $50 miles long.
BY the Pennsylvania route the dis
tance is 911 miles. The route of the
Chicago-New York Electric Airline
road will be 750 miles long, or a saw
ing of over 100 miles.
An electric Vestibuled train, making
rev stops and crossing no other roads
at grade. can easily maintain an aver
age flight of seventy-five miles an
hour, covering the interval in ten
hours The quickest time now made
ny any steam road schedule is eight
cen hours.
Saving in time effects saving in
money. Passengers can be hauled at
proflt Tor the tariff rate of 81 an hour
An electric road Is much cheaper per
car mile to operate than a steam road,
as has been demonstrated repeatedly.
passenger road requires far less ex-
tensive terminal facilities and meas
urably less of rolling stock than a
freight road
All the problems relative to trans
mission or electric power over dis
tanees from 100 to 175 miles have been
solved and the expediency Of harness
ing great natural and perpetual mower
producers, such as waterfalls has
been effectually demonstrated. Elec-
tric power can now be produced more
cheaply per horse power than steam
and conveyed with copper wire to sup
ply stations In districts remote from
human habitation, as no other form
of power can be.
The practieability OF an electric