The Washington times., 1920-04-18

SHOULD CUT FARES
Shanghai Expert Asserts
Charges According to Dist
anCe Best Plan.

NEW YORK, April lS.-Donald Nc
Coll, president OF the Electrical Con-
strction Company OF Shanghai,
China, who built the street railway
system there. believes that one OF the
greatest obstacles to the successful
operation of our traction lines is the
flat fare system In use here. He rec
ommends the substitution of diff
ferential fare such as is in practice
in London. asserting that it would be
highly profitable and would enable
the company to increase it's efficiency
by closer calculation on the travel IN
the different parts of the city.
To prove his argument. McColl
quoted figures covering the ten years
his lines have been in operation in
Shanghai, the report for the year
just ended showing profit of nearly
"a million dollars. This. in spite Of
the fact that the lines have not bei
extended in the last five yearsleen
that the labor difficulties ha where.
quite as acute in China as che hrst
he says. Since 1909. whed up, the
street railways were .hcreased from
number of passengrJO, and. instead
| 600 600 TO 95r fares In keeping
of increasing of affairs. Mr.. McCoii
with the trfve been able to reduce
says tbesxsctly half of the figure
them the beginning. The lowest
askas . cents IN the case OF the
fat class cars, and half that for the
jther class. which is called the third,
In keeping with the steam railways
here. The fare increases to s cents
in the outlying districts.
studies Conditions.
MIR. McColl, who is stopping at the
Hotel Astor prior to his sailing for
England, his former home. is seeing
the United States for the first time.
his trip across the continent
he stopped at several of the larger
cities in order to look over the trac-
ton situation and since his arrival
in this city has spent much time
studying the conditions here. He ex-
pressed great surprise at finding
our street railways so badly conduct
ed. and attributed much of the diff
Guilty to the lack of cooperation be-
tween the city authorities and the
traction companies.
"The present. unsatisfactory posi- !
ton of most of the street railway |
concerns in the United States is due 1
to the management. or all |
the cities / have visited, Philadelphia |
is far in the lead and, to my mind, has
a very well organized street railway |
lightened. broad minded. far-sighted |
That kind of manage
ment will always give satisfactory |
service to the public and obtain |
good return on the capital invest
ment, 1t is the business of the man
agement to overcome the difficulties
and find ways and means of counter
acting handicaps.
Raising Fares .Unnecessary."
THE great agitation everywhere
for raising fares has interested me
for ! cannot see where
1t is at all necessary. Instead, 1
think the best possible course m this
city would be to lower the prices.
Philadelphia does well with the g.
cent fare. why not other cities:
charged in some cities seems to me
to be entirely unwarranted.
But | do not think the 5-cent fare
the best from either the public point
of view or the company point OF
view. believe differential fares
would be more mutually beneficial in
the United states than the fiat fare.
ANY fat fare is bound TO be too dear
for short journeys and too cheap for
long. Street cars are not the proper
vehicle for the longer trips. and the
scent fare for long distances tends
to make people use the cars for such
short Journeys as should be taken
care of by the fast steam or electric
railways. which have much fewer
stops than the street cars must have
TO fulfill their function as SUCH