The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-04-22
Time Schedules

Transportation for the Des Moines
City Railway, read the following pa
per on 1.-THE Arrangement Of Seized
ules With View to Providing Serv-
ice During the Evening Peak this
morning:
To begin with wish to say that
have been twentyeight years in the
service, three years OF which were
on the platform, and the balance OF
twenty-five years, were in an official
capacity in the transportation de-
partment. The first fifteen years
while in charge, made out most
schedules in operation on lines
was in charge of, the remaining ten
years and to date, / merely lay out
the form OF schedule required for
each individual line. which forms
are usually drawn up by statistics
compiled as follows: Take for ex-
ample, as many eighteen hour day
runs as the individual line has at tins
time Of compiling statistics, then
get from the conductors trip card.
the total number of passengers
hauled from the first car In the morn
ing to midnight. setting forth zones
every ten or fifteen minutes, the lat
ter zone being usually sufficient in a
city situated similar to Des Moines;
in large city, however, St Louis
for example, found it necessary to
use the ten minute zone to get a
more accurate and close check on
business done during the eighteen
hours. This was especially true dur
ing the peak loads.
AS to need of car service at differ
emit periods OF theeighteen hours.
some time statistics are used as fol-
lows: Seventy-1ve seats for a hun
bred and thirty passengers, during
peak ads, one hundred seats for
seventy i've passengers, during the
middle the day and at night, or
when tripper service is off the road,
using one hour zone (where practi-
CALI to strike this average. / will
venture to say, however, that person
al observation on certain lines some
times brings better results as to
satisfactory service rather than using
above figures.
Adjusting Time Tables.
Time tables are adjusted to a
large extent, upon two factors, the
running time of g. trip and the az
lowed time thereto, and they are
truly only efficient when the two
factors are properly adjusted to the
conditions which have to be encount-
Grad, which conditions you will find,
differ very much on individual lines
within the same city. For example,
have in this city a four mile limo
which has ten curves, making TWEEN.
ty curves each round trip, some OF
these curves are on heavy grade.
Many schedules were put into opera
ton before the present one, which
seemed to meet the every need of
that particular district. This gets
back to the personal observation
scheme which brought this about and
was finally adjusted to what the aver.
age motorman on that line could
make safely and meet all conditions
which existed
In fact ] am firm believcr-not-
withstanding the fact that MANY man
agements make time schedules ac
cording to code, using such statistics
IS percentages, earnings, etc. that
the above method as used on the four
mile line in question, will partially. IL
not entirely work more satisfactorily
between the three factors, namely
the management, the trainmen. and
last, but certainly not least, the pa
irons. A schedule bringing together
all these three factors, also from a
money point OF view, appeals to me
as being the safest to adopt.
Peak Load PcrplexInp.
] hasten to admit, however, that
peak loads and how to handle them
and make working condi.
tons for trainmen entirely sat,ssac.
tory Is at times rather perplexiny
question for the management. | have
found this especially true in smaller
cities where peak loads are taken
care OF within shorter period than
in larger cities. For example, In this
city the morning peak loads are ann
~ taken care OF in not to exceed
two hours, while the evening peak
load win consume little more time.
thus my average is four hours per
zach trtpper. while In larger cities
the hours within which peak loads.