The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02
CRUSH AT The GRAND CENTRAL
TRAVELLERS FIGHT N VAN TO
REfCH THEIR. TRAINS.

NJ hNHUp htCnuru NNuNFrhn@a -NA@as
Trains IAte-TweDtieth Century or
ON TIme-Ira Mccormack Explains.
For five hours yesterday afternoon the
Grand Central Station was in a state OF
siege. A preholiday rush took possession
Of it and trafic became di~sorganized. Trains
were sent away half an hour late az n rule
and crowded 70 the limit. Thousands
missed the trains they had planned to take
and hundreds, wedged in q mass in the
c~onoourse and powerless 20 move, saw their
trains sent OF.
The cause Of all the trouble was made
quate yard and switching facilities. The
trains are made up in the yard at i3sth
street. There Ia q place at Forty-fifth
street, called THE Hole" where some OF
the trains used to be stored. previous to
the excavations that ave been going on
for the new terminal. All incoming trains
have to be taken up to Harlem, switched
and made over and then run down to the
Grand Central.
Inbound traffic as unusually heavy
yesterday. All the morning rains on the
New Haven and Central, and some on the
Harlem division, arrived in sections. Some
OF them were in four sections. just out
side the Grand Central these trains have to
be shifted to vacant tracks, and this holds
up all outgoing trafic. By 0 o'clock in the
morning the delays began. The yards be-
came congested, the switchmen tangled
UP and the officials were at their wits ends
BY noon the waiting room was filed, the
concourse was crowded and IL was next
to impossible to get near the ticket Office
windows. Some gave up trying to reach
the gates. Once there, il was impossible
to get out and it meant a standing wait OF an
hour or two at the least. Those in the
waiting room trooped out and stood on the
Forty-second street sidewalk or visited
neighboring hotels. TIL bureau Of in
formation men were at the point Of distrac-
ton. Porters were so confused by ques-
tions that they became irritable.
The officials were unable to satisfy the
clamor. The only man who seem upper
turbed was the announcer with the mega
phone. But he, too, had his troubles.
He would leave the staircase, inch his way
dow into the ~concourse, answer a hundred
questions on the way as he wormed in and
out, stretch his full length to see what
trains seemed likely to be sent out and then
dart back to give the people some satisfac-
tion through his ~megaphone.
1t is customary for the Grand Central
people to have two megaphone men at work
on days OF a crush. The second man is
stationed out in the concourse and lets
folks know where TO go and what to do.
Yesterday there was no second man.
1t was necessary to send some trains away
from other tracks than the ones they usually
occupy. Once in the concourse the travel
lers were unable to pick out or reach the
accustomed gates. As a result, when the
gates were opened a football and Brooklyn
Bridge rush combined took place. Men
and women were tossed through, tousled
and torn, 70 trains they did not want to
take. Many Of them crossed over car
platforms or darted over tracks when they
became empty. Everywhere there were
shouts OF warning, and ticket punchers,
train hands, gatemen, were simply over
whelmed. CHANGING at the tickets at a gate
was a mere pretence.
All the time the officials behind the gates
were shouting to those in the concourse
10 be patient and trying TO tell them ms
trans would GO out. They might have
tried as successfully to deafen the noise
Of a hurricane. The worst Of the crush
occurred from ? to 4 o'clock. Every pas
senger seemed to ave an engagement
to meet some one up in Connecticut or
Massachusetts at a certain hour.
At times the trains came in so slowly
from the yards that the big shed was more
than half empty. The passengers would
get through the gates somehow and those
left behind by trains, after they had nee
got through. made long fringes up the
tracks and platform. This made those
who were wedged in the perspiring mass
more angry and added to the hundred and
one varieties of language.
The only train OF the afternoon that
went out on time was the Twentieth Century
Limited. Travel OF that was light. II was
shunted in on a track far over to the east
where the crush was lightest. and n run
way was made for its passengers. They
had TO tug and push and pull and the train
hands had to haul away at them, but every
body who wanted to go on that train got
of and they were a happy crowd. They
filed the rear platform Of the train and
waved glad good-bys to the jam.
Half a dozen heavy trains are sent away
around 4 o'clock, and when they got
of from ten to thirty minutes late the rush
began to thin a little. Nearly every. one
over Monday had arrived by that time,
but it was nearly 0 o'clock before anything
like a normal condition OF traffic was re-
sumed.
/. A. Mccormack, the general manager
OF the terminal traffic. explained the situa-
ton to a sun reporter in this way;
Traffic Just now ia unusu8lly heavy.
Some Of the incoming trains to-day were
in four sections. We shall probably nave
to handle ono trains in the terminal to-day.
We have every kind Of a car we could scrape
up. When the incoming trains are shunted
back to the yard il ties up all other incoming
traffic. We are doing the best we can.
but owing to the incompleted improve
ments and the lack Of adequate switching
facilities we cannot get the trains down
here on time. We can't explain to every
individual Just what the situation is. Every
new arrival asks the same question.
Il have told the men to be patient and
hey are trying to be so, but you can't
reason with a mob and cam explain
things to them either. We have had no
accidents. We are glad Of that. You
will realize some Of the difficulties we en-
counter when l tell you that the other morn
ing we handled l42 trains in $50 minutes
in this place received them, unloaded
them, took them away, brought them back,
loaded them and sent them away. We
also took care Of more than 5000 pieces
Of baggage in the same time. The trouble
is all New York seems to want to go TO
some place by the same channel at the
same time. When we get our new terminal
things will be different"
Then Mr.. Mccormack answered forty
questions in Ave minutes, gave directions
to relieve pressure here and there and
wiped his brow. He stayed on the job
until there were open spaces in the con-