Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-26

der way in New York that Is signifi'
cant of the trend of urban transpor-
tation. The Fifth Avenue Coach co.
has, with the approval of the Kappa
Transit Commission, purchased all
the common stock o. the New 1ofk
Street Railway Co., operating the INES
on Broadway, Sixth, Seventh, LeXlng-
TON and Columbus avenues and sew
eral cross. town streets, with a total
of seventy-one miles. Furthermore
the coach company, through a SUD-
sidiary known as the New York CITY
Omnibus Corporation, has applied Tor
the right to operate BUSES on ten
cross-town routes and on Sixth, Sew
enth and Columbus avenues, the street
surface lines paralleled by the ous
lines to be abandoned. A ten-cent
fare on the north and south routes Is
proposed. with five cents on the cross
town routes, and a universal transfer
and retransfer system. AT hearing
O. representative of the coach COM
pany said:
with existing trolley lines without inn
pairing the assets of those lines. L
do not believe that the city author
files will give any bus company a
franchise to compete with existing
surface lines. If they do. it will mean
five to ten years litigation.
While New York's traction situa-
ton is somewhat different from that
In this city, owing to the peculiar con-
formation Of Manhattan Island, this
matter of the possible replacement of
track lines by bus lines is to be taken
into account in considering the local
transportation conditions. A volun-
tary merger of the street railway COM
panies has failed of accomplishment.
1t is now proposed to present to Con-
gress a bill for q compulsory merger,
which, it is hoped, will be passed on
equitable terms and lead to a union
of the lines under single ownership
and management. In framing this
measure account must be taken of the
bus factor. The street railway COM
panies are now, In recognition Of the
greater f1exibility of the bus, Install
ing non-competitive feeder lines and
bus companies have secured rights to
operate lines on routes most of which
are not occupied by car tracks. Two
rates of fare prevail, one for the bus
lines and one for the traction lines, re-
CARELESS of distance or route. This
Is not a desirab BILE condition. The
chief purpose Of a merger from the
public point of view is to equalize
the financial conditions of the two
traction systems to permit a regula.
ton of fares which will be advan-
tageous to the patrons. 1t is hoped
that under a merger a lower rate of
fare than is now required to maintain
the Immediately less affluent but po-
tentially more profitable system can
be established. But this would lead to
a wider differential between the two
systems of transportation, trolley cars
and buses.
A factor in this matter of possible
consolidation between trolley and bus
the former by the latter, which is re-
garded by many as inevitable, is the
general traffic situation. The streets
are now congested with motors. In
some cases the car tracks are an OBJ
stacle 10 the free flow of the traffic.
Regulation is more easy on streets
without trolley cars. The bus, which
can take on and discharge it's passen,
gers at the curb, has an advantage
over the midstreet vehicle, to reach
and leave which passengers must get
through the traffic streams.
In their preparation of a mea sure
TO be laid before the houses of Con.
gress at the next session the Commits.
stoners should and doubtless will note
the developments in New York and
take into account the possibility of
the eventual removal of all tracks
and the maintenance of the city's
transportation solely on the basis of
mechanically independent vehicles.