Evening star., 1909-06-03
PROBLEM A HARD ONE
York State Experience With
Overcrowding Cars.
TEST is MADE AT ALBANY
Limiting Number of Passengers No
Solution.
OBSERVATIONS OF TRACTION co.
Letter From General Manager Fas-
sett to District Electric Railway
Commission of This City.

That limiting the number of passengers
that may be carried at one time on a
given car by municipal regulation does
not solve the problem of overcrowding
70 the satisfaction of the public has been
demonstrated by the experience of the
Union Traction Company of Albany.
n Y. according to letter just received
from General Manager Edgar S. Fassett
addressed to the District electric railway
commission of this city. Mr.. Fassett
writes: The residents of Pine Hills COM
planned to the public service commission,
second district, state of New York. that
the car service furnished them was mad
equate.
I'm our answer we showed that even
during rush hours there were cars enough
provided the people were properly dis
tributed in them-that is. the total number
of passengers carried during the rush
hours did not exceed the seating capaci-
ty of the cars; and that by overcrowding,
car would become delayed and other
cars, not having proper spacing, would
creep up to the car ahead. and for that
reason the distribution of the passengers
would be unequal.
For instance. on two-and-one-h half
on the first car to the number of sixty
or more it would be delayed and the in
terval between it and the car following
would be reduced to one and one-half,
one or even one-half minute SO that the
following car which on the schedule
should be five minutes behind. would get
within three minutes of it. While the
first car would be crowded, the second
would have comparatively few passen-
gers and the third almost none.
Observations Not Favorable.
1.-The public service commission thought
by limiting the passengers on any car
it could properly distribute the passen-
gers over the whole number of cars. Our
cars, which have a seating capacity of
twenty-siX passengers, were limited to
forty passengers, and those which have
seating capacity of twenty-four were
limited TO thirty-hVe.
The observations of the company on
this service are not favorable. 1t means
that the ends of the lines are properly ac-
commodated, while the intermediate parts
are not.
Mr.. Fassett also says this to very
large extent stops the short riding. which
is really the only profitable riding TO
street railways. MANY complaints have
been made to the company he adds,
''and 1 understand that petition has
been circulated asking the commission
TO revoke the order"
He also states that 1T seems almost
impossible to stop overcrowding during
rush hours. If the companies could pay
additional interest on the additional
equipment necessary to take care of this
travel 1t would sIll he impossible to
obtain men to work from two to three
hours a day."
Thousands Ride in Ten Minutes.
''On our system in the city of Troy. at
6 o'clock at night from 5000 TO 5000 COL
lar girls stop work and they have to be
taken care of in twenty minutes. You
can readily see that it would be impos-
sible for us to have cars enough to pre-
vent crowdng in such a case. The fac
tories start at 8 o'clock in the morning
and we have something of the same rush
a. this time.
John S Kennedy. secretary of the pub
state of New York, in a reply to an in
quiry from H.-C.. Eddy, executive officer
and secretary Of the District electric
railway commission, writes that the or
der fixing a maximum limit to the num-
ber of passengers carried on car at one
time was made purely as an experiment
to relieve the situation complained of.
He adds: In all fairness. it must be said
that there is a difference Of opinion as
to the successful operation of this plan.
although the commission feels that up
to the present time 1t has worked rea-
sonably WELL.
The District electric railway commits
sion is expected to hold its session to-
morrow afternoon.