The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-03
CLOSE SHUTTLE TO
END SUBWAY MIXUP


III -NNe at the Times square station
directed by Inspector Henry.
Almost from the moment they arrived
they had the situation in hand. First
making themselves familiar with the
various entrances exits. gateways, pas
eageways and Platforms land this took
them less than five minutes), they soon
had planned ways In which the opposite
moving crowds could pass. and with
pleasantries, persuasion, Intelligence and
the moral stimulus OF their presence. con-
trived to get the crowds In order and
keep them so.
Express trains ran yesterday, but they
ran slowly. Local trains ran more
slowly still. All seemed to he short ~
the number of cars. Late last nigh. Il
sort of order seemed to have evolved
itself out of the stress and misery of
the day. but as late as midnight any ore
who had a journey to make by the sub
way did we'll to allow himself twice the
time necessary before the new system
became effectual.
Say Public Did Not Read.
For the situation as II stands now
the subway officials blame the public
and the public blames the marlborough.
The railroad men say that their pas
sengers have not cooperated with them
by studying in advance the explana-
lions published in the newspapers for
a week before the system was put In
operation. The public takes the view
that the system should not have been
thrown open until Its machinery was
so ,1erfect o. every point that the
crowds could be handled.
More persons used the shuttle lines
under Forty-second street than were
compelled by the necessities Of travel.
Those who did use the shuttle train
found but few measures provided for
their direction.
Here Is the experience of reporter,
which may be taken as typical
Leaving the Brooklyn Bridge station
at 8 rs. after several trains had passed
with such crowd aboard that there
was no room for others, a local train
groaned north to Fourteenth street.
where an express not SO crowded was
standing.
Passengers on the local soon damned
the express to the point where guards
had to shove them of from around the
doors. and the express pulled out for
Grand Central and Lexington avenue
points.
In strunge Territory.
At the Grand Central station of the
Lexington avenue line--this is the new
station partly underneath the Commo-
dore Hotel at Lexington avenue and
Forty street, not the old Grand
Central to which subway riders have
been accustomed in the pasta great
number left the express in place they
had never seen before and had not read
about. and trouble started right there
The subway officials and the public
Service Commission had put numbers Of
platform men and women on the job
BY night the directions Hhich these
guides gave were explicit and correct.
Mounting fight OF stairs, the crowd
poured into a passt>eway which joins
the tunnel leading from the oueensbor-
ough subway. when the throng-which
up TO this point had taken the jostling
and toe pinching good naturedly-was
stopped for Ave minutes or more and
the heat from so many persons in such
small space began to mount. they
began to lose their temper.
The heat grew more intense and the
crowd more impatient and movement
began again as the pressure from every
side increased.
The crush became worse. and four
navy bluejackets set the example for the
men in the crowd by placing their arms
against the backs OF the men in front OF
them. saving women between their arms
frcm the pressure.
Panic Seems I'm IN inent.
Too few men followed their lead and
as the jam grew worse a woman sud
denly screamed and tainted and was
borne along to the nearest exit. where
three men fought their way out support
ing her.
This was the UNEXPECTED or the half
Fn,. nj ,f.1-
ute a panic threatened. Men set their
shoulders against backs-in some in
stances against the backs OF women and
Girls-and surged for the exits. but three
husky cops sent home a few short arm
jots where they were most mer!ted and
It was over almost as soon as II had
started.
BY this time it was a few minutes
after O'Clock and the rush hour was
apparently at its peak. Additional pres
sure from the new arrivals at the Lex
ington avenue Grand Central station in
creased the jam where the tunnel be-
tween the old and new stations Joins the
old one, and the subway officials and
Public Service Commission efficiency ex-
perts threw up their hands in despair
and gave the police carte blanche.
Police Quickly Solve Problem.
And sixty OF New York's finest" I'M
der Capt william w. Duggan from the
East Fifty-first street station and In
spector Morris. waded into the mob
which had reached the state where am
unexpected incident would have resulted
in blind unreasoning panic and In ten
minutes had solved the immediate prob
lem.
They worked their way through the
struggling mass in the connecting tun-
mel. where the temperature was we'll
over the hundred mark. although how
they managed 1t il a mystery. and by
their example and their orders, which
they Immediately enforced. brought or
der out of what threatened TO become
chaos.
At the mex exit from the tunnel over
near the Lexington avenue station they
turned all of the westbound passengers
into the basement of the Commodore
Hotel and from there to the local ramps
IN the Grand Central Station Itself The
crowd was directed down the east side
ramp, up the one on the west side, then
over TO the northerly arcade in that sta
tlon, where they were fed into the sub
way again in judcious instruments
Feared Extra Fare Charge.
The crowd was inclined to balk at
this, as the majority feared 1t meant the
payment of an extra fare, but when a
broad ehouldered cop said Move this
way" the crowd moved whether or no
and found when 1t reached the usual en-
trance no ticket was requested.
The tunnpI where all n he