New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-11-30

Decrease Elevated and surface lines together.
For these figures the commission assumes no re-
sponsibility, they were compiled from returns
made by the companies TO the commission covering
the year ended June 80. 1907 The commission
simply has tabulated and analyzed them. According
10 those figures. New York City accounts for four
ffths OF the street railway ac in the state. and
the number rides per capita is larger than in any
other American city, except, possibly, San Fran
cisco. The report Of transit conditions here SAYS:
The difficulties attending the transportation Of
Ihre ano na!i nll lt @ f b: t@af7c Is
part nom me IaGI {hat SO nof f q ms hours cb
day This difficulty. however, is not peculiar to
cities where the home and the workroom have been
separated through the development OF extensive
The peculiar local dif7culty lies in the fact that
% lines do not int Ia IN al rsn 9n
sit is ooncerned extend in only two directions
one gate-Brooklyn Bridge-the capacity Of which
limits the capacity Of the transit system Of Long
Island AS more bridges and tunnels are built, New
York's transit problem will become more like that
any other large city
At the end of June. 1907. the subway operat
ing % miles road in Manhattan and The Bronx.
running trains al average speed of is miles an
hour. including all stops. The elevated roads had
3s miles and operated trains at an average speed
Of Is miles an hour; while the surface lines en-
hraced lo2 miles operated by electricity and miles
of horse cars. the average speed of all being III
miles an hour. The length Of roads operated
under the commissions jurisdiction was 76S miles.
and since q great deal of this double. triple
and sometimes even four tracked the total track
age length was 1872 miles In Brooklyn the total
trackage Of the Brooklyn Repid Transit was 56+
miles Of other companies IS miles.
In 1907 there put in operation total OF about
Il miles of track, but this formed only
small portion of the mileage under construction.
The companies IN operation. excluding the new
McAdoo and Pennsylvania tunnels expended 81
10000 on construction and reconstruction.
In 1907. while the companies charged 100000 to
their capital accounts for cars, the number of cars
available reported he smaller than in the
preceding year The total number 1O009.
divided between the subway. with 794: the elevated
in Manhattan and The Bronx. 1903 the surface lines
in Manhattan $3.50 and in The Bronx 78. In
Brooklyn there $3.50 cars. in Queens 5l3. and
Richmond 2SS. About one-quarter of the number
of of the open type used only In summer.
The report carries table showing the number of
passengers carried yearly on the elevated roads
since 1892 when the figure reached 1892 745, in
creasing the following year TO 22l, 4oT,1s7. From
then there vas & decline TO 1899 when the total
was 174324575. Then began an increase up TO 1904,
when the figures ran to 2s6S34,f95- Travel again
decreased. until in 1906 the total number OF pas
senEers 257. 79s 754. The report explained the
decline 1893 1899 by the extension of surface
Iines and Identification. The decline in 1904
due to the opening of the subway. Then the re-
port says:
Ira :sfers were shown TO have increased during
gers showed increase of % per cent, the num-
her of transfer passengers increased 1873 per cent.
The smallest percentage of transfer increase
in The Bronx 56 per cent?. and the greatest in
crease in Richmond, where the number of transfers
nearly doubled OF The total increase in transfer
sssengers-5A 100 ooo-Brooklyn furnished seven
tenths. Yet the of transfers in Brooklyn was
still less than that the Manhattan surface
roads. OF the latter there 81 transfer passen
gers TO each 100 passengers while in Brooklyn
the only So 20 leo. but in Brooklyn tie
figures included both elevated and surface roads
Notwithstanding the increase III transfers, the
commissions experts Ggure that it not at the
~. dc butt bar tho
Of the comfort Of passengers. that the companies
were increase the revenue for every mile
run by a car Notwithstanding the more liberal Civ
ing OF transfer privileges. This was deduced from
the fact that while the receipts q passenger de
cned from Ala cents 20 4O4 cents the number Of
car miles increased only 3S per cent. while the
number Of fare passengers increased 80 per cent
and the number all passengers - per cent. The
result was increase in the average passenger car
earnings from 25.5S cents mile, in iS)D to e5S9
cerors In