New Britain herald., 1924-07-30
COMMUNICATED
NEW HAVEN RAILROAD
 VICE-PRESIDENT WRITES

Daily Herald,
 New Britain, Conn.
 Dear Sirs:
 I have read with appreciation your
 editorial of the 18th instant. entitled New Haven's Possibilities" There
 are two statements in 1t which think
 should be corrected. The statement that the New Haven is suffering from 8 lack of equipment lis erroneous. It is based upon the an- nual report of 1923. Analysis of that report will show that of the $4,50O,- GOO mentioned, nearly sS.4s6,0O0 cov- CTS the hire of freight cars, and the
 balance covers rental of locomotives,
 passenger cars, etc. Substantially all
 of this Ialance is offset by rentals re-
 ceived for the hire of our own loco-
 motives and passenger cars. Under
 normal conditions the only locomo-
 tives we rent are those from and to
 the Central New England. our sub
 sidiary, substantially all of whose stock we own. Thus one hand washes
 the other and the account approxi- mately balances. In 1923 we had to rent some engines from other roads during the early part of the year be- cause of the shop strike. There have been no such payments to other lines since the spring of 1923. The loco motive equipment of the New Haven is entirely adequate for it's present re- quirements.
 The rental charge for passenger equipment simply represents payment by the New Haven to other lines and payment received by the New Haven from other lines on cars used in service. These usually offset each other. Indeed, in 1928, the New Haven received about $2b.00O more for passenger car rental than it paid.
 With respect to the charge of sS,- 500,000 for the hire of freight cars, let me say that as long as the present rules as to car hire between railroads the New Haven will general ly be 8 debtor road, because there are five cars loaded into New England to two loaded outward. The roads west of the Hudson river, particularly In times of car surplusages, prefer to use their own cars to using the New and at all times the New Haven has to pay car hire from the time it receives the cars until 1t re- delivers them to those connections. | Of course, it receives no revenue on | empty cars returning to connections | which averages three out of every | five cars received. As matter of fact, beginning with the spring of | nf. fects of the shop strike and the severe weather conditions of the win ter of l922-t923, the company's op- l srating performance improved so | much that it moved up to the early | part of 1924 the heaviest sustained | volume of freight in it's history, and
 his was handled with from 5000 to [ ,000 fewer cars on line daily than in | 'ormer years when less freight was moving. This resulted in g material decrease during the last half of 1923 n the charge for freight car hire. As | matter of fact. additions and better nents to roadway, structures, motive power and other equipment have en- tbled the company so to improve it's operation that 1t does not need as many cars as it now owns. The New Haven needs six thousand fewer cars han it now owns.
 From this it will be seen that of the
 "A, ,5nn,nnn paid in 1923, substantially II .000.0oo was received and s3,50o.- 100 is chargeable to the strike and weather conditions and to the ter ninal characteristics of the company. The former have been overcome-the alter will always continue to some
 xtent. The company is over sup ,lied rather than under supplied with reight cars due to it's greatly irri- ,roved movement of such cars.
 The other quotation is the state nent that "as the result of a wrans'e with the Pullman company. the New Haven refused to divulfe it's interest n the Boston and Maine. This is