Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-04
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 Chicago
New York Electric road will quickly prove
that such is not the case and that by spe-
cial equipping for passenger traffic 1t 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 because the roads having been
conceived and built with consideration for
passenger requirements and with freight the
beginning and end Of the roads commercial
desires. the two classes of tonnage don't work
well together When a flyer" makes a sem
sational run under present railroad condi-
tions. II often means that all freight trains
for distance of one hundred miles have to
be run on to siding or otherwise shifted out of
the danger zone until the passenger train gets
by. This means an almost incalculable loss a
loss that certainly does kill all 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
serpentine twists and turns divert them from
the pathway Of directness Passengers not
cnly have to be hauled far and unnecessarily
out of the way. but 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. II the route were only
direct one and no delay Of atty-car freight
trains some of them with perishable goods
was caused by the high-speed trains.
When a manufacturer ships freight under
present conditions, strange process ensues.
Freight may go over half a dozen roaGs and
many miles out of its way before It reaches
It's destination. Most of the roaGs are mem-
bers of great freight pools or trusts
which operate within certain spheres of in
huence." Business is divided up, the profits
being portioned out in accordance with "fac-
tor schedule. and the freight going over
whichever pool route the situation de-
mands. When a load OF freight starts from
New York to Chicago by way of. let us say.
the Erie" no man can predict how many
other routes than the Erie II will run over be-
fore II reaches the end of its Journey; and il
matters not so long as II gets there-somehoV--
some time. But 1t DOES matter to passen-
gers whether or not they have to tolerate
such beating around the bush When a pas
senger starts for a given point he wants to
go there DIRECTLY, and, therefore. the pas
senger trains OF existing roads pick their way
through a sea Of freight trains. cattle cars
on a siding here. fruit cars on spur there,
all being delayed to the extent Of hundreds OF
thousands Of dollars
What a blessing. then. II will be when tho
new Chicago-New York Electric Air Line
flashes its clean, luxurious trains between
Chicago and New York city at the marvellous
speed of seventy-hVe miles an hour, some of
them making no stops. II freight is ever
carried II will 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 utl-