The National tribune., 1908-02-27
THE ZONE SYSTEM IN HUNGARY.

The greatest incident in the recent
railroad history of Europe is the re-
markable success Of the zone system in
Hungary. Hungary is comparatively
small Kingdom. having 125.430 square
miles of territory. or about the size of
Indiana. Illinois and Michigan. with a
population of 100000 or about 154
to the square mile. Thus IL has a densi-
ty of population about equal to that OF
the State of New York. Everything
in Hungary centers at Budapest. which
has population of about 500. 900. The
railroads nearly all belong to the State.
and they We're conducted at loss Some
thing had to be DONE and that was
worked out by Minister Baroos. who Il
years ago decreed the Inauguration of
the zone systFn. His idea was to ap-
passenger tariff; that is, he would re-
duce the whole schedule to its utmost
simplicity AS everything centers at
Budapest, the Kingdom was divided into
IA zones, surrounding the Capital. but
later the number was reduced to IL.
Two of these zones. those nearest the
city, were % kilometers. or Is miles.
The other nine zones are Is Kilometres
each, or nine miles. The longest stretch
of travel is SO kilometers. or 522 miles.
The price of tickets is put down to
what seems, in Europe. a preposterousIy
low figure, diminishing according to the
length of travel. For example, a man
buys ticket good for one zone, and
TINS is good to any point in the zone
For two zones the price is proportion
ately a little less, and so on up to the
last zone. He can get ticket to any
point in this or a ride of 522 miles for
So. The success of this plan was i'm
mediate and startling Six months
after 1t was introduced the receipts of
the railroads had swelled beyond all
calculation, and the travel in the King
dom increased from 100000 passen-
gers in 1888 to 5000, 900 the following
year, and has kept on growing at the
same rate. In every way the railroads
they had to maintain the same road
bed. telegraph stations, administrative
staff and other fixed charges, whether
they carried 100000 or 10000, 600 pas
All that they needed to ac-
commodate the increased traffic We're
more cars, engines and train crews.
The question is whether any modifi-
cation of this system which has worked
so admirably could be successfully en-
ployed in this country. 1t looks as if
it were profitable field for the Legis-
latures of States to experiment in, and
every State which has a large central
city might employ it to advantage For
example. New York could introduce il
with benefit on the railroads OF that
State, and it would seem that New
England might employ the zone system
successfully with Boston as the center.
In State like Pennsylvania, which has
two great commercial centers. there
might be a modification by having a
double zone system. The chief feature
of the plan is simplicity of schedules
and tariffs. A man buys a ticket pre-
cisely as he buys postage stamp. He
wants to go to some point within Is
miles, and he buys a first zone ticket
which is good on any road to any point
within that zone. All the advertising
of the roads is done by Government
office, and with equal facilities in every
direction there is no necessity of BOOM
ing one line over another.