Norwich bulletin., 1920-12-03
NO REcEIvERsHIP DANGER
 FnR NEW HAVEN

FOR NEW HAVEN ROAD The railroads are an absolute neces- sity and their prosperity is essential to
 the best interests of New England, They are under heavy burden at the present 1 time, but in my opinion in no danger or receivership." said Erward J. Began or New Haven. superintendent of the New Haven and New London divisions of
 the New York. New Haven and HaFtford
 Railroad Company. when he was speak ing at the Thursday meeting of the New London Rotary club. | When the interstate commerce com
 mission granted all the railroads an in crease of 30 per cent. in freight rates and 40 per cent in passenger rates, contin- mended to the western trunk lines that they turn over small percentage of their earnings to the New England rail- l roads to compensate the latter. for. the | extra cost of operation which New Eng !, land roads have to assume because of the short hauls and frequent switching 1 operations. This commission has no au-
 thority to compel such action on the part l of the western roads, and the roads have | thus far declined to adopt the recommen- dation. If this is not tsdone the New York, 1 New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co. will in all probability endeavor to se- cure federal legislation which will en- able them to operate on an equal basis with the trunk lines"
 Giving some interesting information about the New Haven road, MT. Began 1 spoke in part as follows: There are nine divisions of the New I York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. The New Haven division and the New ! London division are two Of them. The territory of the two divisions extends
 from the Housatonic river to Providence on the main line; from New London to Worcester. with branches to -Southbridge
 and East Thompson; New Haven to Northa mpton, branch to Holyoke the Air line from New Haven to Williman- 1 tic, and thence to Boston. There is a total of III miles of double track and 163 miles of single track. There is an ! average of 128 passenger trains and from 1 30 to S5 freight trains daily over these 1 lines.
 Tn the two divisions there are 7,4S2 employees, 5,1S2 being in the New Haven
 division and 2,300 in the New London di-
 vision. The wages of these employees per
 week amounts to s2Ss,014.21 Oast weeks s l payrolD, which is an average for each employe, men or women, of sSS week | in the New Haven division and $40 a week in the New London division.
 You can readily see the need of reve-
 nue The increase in wages granted uri- der government control placed an extra heavy burden upon the roads. The rail-
 roads, outside the shops and yards, can-
 not be operated on the eight hour basis, ! and we have to pay time and half for all overtime. I know of some engineers who are getting S125 t2 $150 a week for work that is not so hard as they were doing q few years ago. Men in the !, freight service are getting big money. i We have no control over the wages" l Speaking of the growth of the business 1 of the road and the establishment of new yards, MT. Reagan mentioned the big
 new yard at Cedar Hill, which is known as a hump yard or gravity yard. The i east section has been in use a year while the west section will be completed within month or so.
 1 Tn this yard, which covers 116e acres
 and which is 1-2 miles long and half mile wide. there is a track capacity for II 900 freight cars. There is 150 miles i of track in the yard There is fuel ca pacity for coal storage of 100000 tons
 There is tower at one end of the yard operated electro-pneumatically by i a man who has simply to push butfor 1 to open switches on the various tracks
 and let the cars run down grade iron the top of hump where they are
 made up into trains. l have seen a 10(