New-York tribune., 1908-02-11
A COMMUTERS KICK.
Ercitcs Tart Reply from President
of d., l.. 6 ".


service on the Delaware. Lacka wanna & West
tern Railroad was made public yesterday:
No "A Broad street New York. February g. 1908
Mr.. William H TruesdaIe the Delaware. Lacka-
& Western Railroad. No. 80 West street,
New York City.
Dear Sir: IN line with the article which appeared
In newspaper this morning, entitled Commuters
Up in Arms .'Montclair DwelIers Demand Better
Service the Lackawanna,'' I am persuaded TO
present in connection with their protest few facts
which may appear somewhat remarkable.
In view of the frequent and constant seemingly
avoidable and unnecessary delays experienced
while commuter your line. it occurred to me
TO get out pencil and paper and find out just what
these delays have cost your committing patrons.
take TWO instances in particular TO illustrate
my point: First, my own experience has been, be-
ing obliged TO get the Office at a. m. to take
the 6354 a. train from East Orange daily. The
train has been delayed west of the tunnel entrance
from five to twenty minutes daily since the new
tunnel was begun, never less than five minutes and
usually considerably than ten. That means
that delays have cost in the last two years 1oi
hours Of time wasted Now, reckoning the average
trainload two hundred persons per seFen-car
train, You have levied two thousand business min
utes from your patrons a day for the last two
years. OF Sl2 working days each. This would make
l-24ee69 minutes, 2.SD hours, or 2SG working
days. OF eight hours each. or SIS years OF time,
counting S12 working days to the year. This, of
course. takes account OF only train which has
been delayed and all trains in the early part Of
the morning more or less delayed the tunnel.
Now, We concede that the opening Of the tunnel
is bound to cause delay. and have put up with
il without complaint, feeling certain that it
q means TO an end: but the main point Of my
tenton is this. that account Of the snowstorm
Of January "a. slight fall of nine inches of
should have so paralyzed your traffic that trains
were delayed from two to three hours. Ny own
experience was delay OF two hours and half.
end conservative estimate would put the
average delay at two hours. Now. estimating
average delay of two heurs for ao passengers
the train, and about seventy-fve trains due al
Hoboken between the hours of and 10 o'clock.
there was delay of 30o hours, or g. 80 working
days Of eight hours each, or exactly twelve years
Of 81 working days each The above figures, OF
course. are very ccnserTatfyely estimated. your
committing traffic probably aggregates nearer 5000
passengers day than the 1900 with which I have
reckoned. This also takes no account Of the
numerous delays of trains coming out CT the ter
mlnal. which are exaspeTaungIy frequent
The above figures appear me astounding. Il
seems absolutely unfair that you should exact
toll from the business of New York aggre
eating an equivalent of twelve years of business
service on account Of nine-inch snow, which, 1t
seens 10 me, there must be engineering ability
enough in the country 70 obviate. II would seem
10 that a cheaper solution Of the problem, per-
haps not for the Lackawanna, but for its patrons
would re for the Lackawanna TO establish
system Of preventing repetition Of block in the
switches in the future. II certainly would De
reasonable to expect that N,o0oe0H, II neces
sary. expended in this vay would not be extrava-
CANT Perhaps the entire yards could be covered
over with sheds to prevent the covering the
switches. else a system Of steam electric
heating which would melt the fast II
fell could be arranged. II strikes that il might
be well investigate the system in the
Pennsylvania I understand that the suburban
traffic suffered delay during that storm
There is no DOUBT that you would receive IN
limited praise and less complaints If these petty
delays going in and coming Of the terminal
~. e--rI[ nI cyr1h hi,7cz .ffn rcd RI
continue II il only q question Of time when the
I.ackawanna VIII become another Erie and will
have 70 he the butt Of JOKES in practically every
edition of the newspapers
It * q sad commentary the Erie that they
are compelled to incorporate these Jokes
table IN order that the company may be laughed
al rather tan cursed Z. g VAN DYKE.
Delaware. Lsckavanna & Western Railroad Com
panv.
Office Of President
New York February = fa0s
Z. { Van Dyke. 10. ~ Broad street New York
civ
Dear Sir: ! aTn in due receipt of your letter OF
tbs Sd inst. complaining Of the suburban service
rendered by our company and Of the numerous de
lays YOU suffer and the consequent loss TO and
the rest OF our commuters a result COM
putation you make to the aggregate loss to
commuters b. reason thereof.
feel very sorry for you and the rest Of the peo-
rje who live or the LackaUanna railroad and 7
great Iosses YOU sustain a result Of your un-
fortunat location
myself understand and appreciate how great
2 tax the loss Of time Is upon who is at
all occupied with the affairs Of life
J have thought sometimes would either myself
or arrange with some one to figure out for me what
time I lose each year reading and answering
communications which really unnecessary and
conducive Of 10 good Some time I TiT Try TO do
this and send you a statement of what 1t
amounts 20.
The suggestion you make shedding
r1lr entire FIoboken ward for the sake of preventing
snow falling on our tracks is Certainly novel
and We viii consider # The only addition your
proposition that occurs 10 me is that build
forty or fifty stories over the proposed shed. fol-
lowing the construction Of the tower the Metro
politan Life Insurance Building, and thereby fur
uish - our different commuters apartments where
they can live in winter. charging them therefor the
same price q r1onth that they pay for monthly
tickets This would enable them 10 avoid travel
ling on the Lackavanna railroad and would be
very convenient location to do their business,
that the new tunnel Is about beginning operation.
Noting what you have TO say with regard to the
Erie q prominent railroad gentleman whom I
across the other day made this remark: Il sec,
Tr1IesdsIe. that you and the Lackawanns. who
giving the best suburban service furnished by any
railroad in this country. get about many kicks
from your commuters the Erie for instance,
which does not make any pretensions to give satis
.actory service" I suppose, though, he ell
wrong in his views to our service being anything
but the worst ever
AS result Of my thiTty-odd years experience in
.ha railway business ! have long ago reached the
conclusion that it is absolute impossbility Tor
railroad companies TO provide service that will be
ANYTHING but unsatisfactory TO certain element Of
their patrons Yours truly.
". H TRUEsDALE President.