Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-02
At COST OF MILLIONS
Identification of Railways En-
tering New York.
DOING AWAY WITH STEAM
Two More Years Required to Com
plete the Task.
PUBLIC SERVICES COMMISSION
Benefits That Are Expected to Ac-
crue to the Public-Advantage
Gained by the Roads.
PUBLIC SERVICES COMMISSION
BY WILLIAM +. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
| Chicago Record Herald
NEW YORK, October 81. 1907.
Within the next two years every railway
| train which enters the city of New York
| will be moved by electricity. The New
! York Central Company is spending $40
0oo.co0 to accomplish this. The Pennsyl-
vania company is spending an equal
| amount to bring its patrons into the very
| heart of the city. Its new station at 18th
! avenue and 31st street. which is reached
by tunnels from Jersey City and Long Is
| land. will cost more than ST.. CO0. 900 with
out including the approaches The Long
! Island railway, which does a very large
suburban business, is now being electri-
| fled Immense power stations are being
erected at Long Island City for that serv-
| ice, and at Jersey CITY for the Pennsyl-
vania service. and the Erie. Lacka wanna
and other roads which come in a Hobo
ken and Jersey City will also have &C
| cess to New York by electric power
| through tunnels under the Hudson And
all of these improvements are quite as
extensive. expensive and important, and
are much more difficult than any similar
problem that exists in Chicago.
| Tho physical difficulties that have to be
overcome in New York do not appear in
| Chicago. New York Is island with a
| river on either side. 1t cannot be ap-
preached without a bridge tunnel ex-
! cept from the north. and even there the
| railroad has been compelled to run un-
| foreground and to adopt electrical power
! to protect the citizens from the smoke
and noise nuisance, which Is even grea ter
! in Chicago than it has ever been in New
| York. Only the advent of electricity
could have enabled the New York roads to
make these Improvements. or even to
| handle their suburban traffic at all. and
the improvements are not for economical
reasons entirely. They are responding to
| the same demands that are made upon
| the railways of Chicago and other large
cities. 1t has become imperative for the
/ New York roads to carry more people in
| less time with greater comfort than ever
! before and the disaster in the New York
smoke from steam locomotives obscuring
the danger signals. helped the improve
| ments along.
| Success of Electricity.
AS you may have read in the interviews
| already published with the men who have
had charge of these great undertakings,
there is still a question as to the success
| of electricity as a motive power under
such conditions. Mr.. Wilgus Of the New
York Central company. who is in actual
| charge of the electric service upon Its
| lines, proclaims complete triumph for
| the system he has introduced. Vice Presi-
dent McHenry of the New Haven road,
who has had charge Of the electrifcation
of that line. with a different system, is
| not so positive. but is still confident that
he has got the best system and exactly
| the one that Is needed for their service.
| Mr.. John +. Wallace, who is president
| of the most comprehensive electrical com
pany IN the United States. if not in the
world, regards both the New York Central
and the New Haven systems as still in the
| experimental stage. The Pennssy lvania en-
gineers are going ahead. and are expend-
/ ing millions of money to introduce what
they believe to be the most certain and
satisfactory system. Altogether 1t will
cost more than $50 900 coo to complete the
! facilities that have been already planned
| to handle the passengers that arrive and
/ leave New York city by railway. and
| the connections are SO arranged that any
| person may be transferred from rail
| road to another without crossing a street
! or even going into the open air
Chicago Behind the Times.
No progress has been made in Chicago
| for arranging intertrafflc between the
roads. There ought to be central sta
ton somewhere near the center of the
city for the interchange of passengers
between all the eastern and western lines,
as there is in st. Louis. and the longer
| pensive such an arrangement will be. All
| of the New York railways are doing great
| work TO improve their terminal facilities
| for handling passenger traffic, and espe
| cfally their suburban business. while Chi
cago is doing nothing. The suburban ia
| Cilities OF Chicago are away behind the
| times they are behind New York, Bos-
| ton, Philadelphia. st. Louis and every
other large city. notwithstanding the fact
| that Chicago has the largest suburban
| 10
| Central runs $50 suburban trains daily
over a single line and carries %, 900 pas
daily for the round trip. This traffic has
more than doubled within five years with
in thirty miles of Chicago
/ The Northwestern railroad runs 220
suburban trains daily and carries from
$4,000 to $1,000 passengers each way
daily. This Is an increase from 5000
to 10000 each way. or from $4,000 to 49,
600 daily, both ways. Ave years ago.
The suburban trains cover a distance of
thirtyfour miles.
The New York Central. the New Haven
and the Harlem roads handle 626 trains a
day in the Grand Central station at New
| York and handle about "a 900 passengers
daily. In order to do this expeditiously
they are spending nearly $40 900. 900. This
expenditure and these improvements are
not entirely voluntary. They are the re-
suit OF the pressure of public opinion. leg
islative enactment and orders from the
railway commission.
New Commissioners Praised.
Mr.. William ]. Wilgus, vice president
of the New York Central railroad, in
Il charge of obstruction work. speaks
in the warmest terms of the personnel of
the public service commission of New
York state He remarked the other day:
LAS yet have not had the pleasure of
meeting the members of the commission
for the first district OF Greater New York,
but / know all the members of the sec
ond district. who have jurisdiction over
II the rest Of the state. and have the high
est respect for them. They are able,
energetic fair minded men. and both the
railroads and the public are to be con-
graduated upon their selection for the
administration of such an important law
1 Their duties include the regulation of all
phases of railroad activity. Their prompt
action on the grade -crossing problem is
highly commendable. and believe that In
time the work of these two commissions
will be acclaimed by the corporations as
well as by the public
1t IS quite remarkable that the new
law, which has been defined in previous