Evening star., 1931-05-08
PENNSY PLANS TRAIN
FROM N. Y. TO D. C.
IN 3 IL HOURS TIME

Continued From First Page)
by the company, the new rails will
weigh l52 pounds per yard and are de-
signed to Withstand the tremendous
strain incident to higher speeds.
End Work In Two Years.
The new fast service is provided for
under the $175,O0 900 Improvement
Atterbury, president of the Pennsyl.
vania. Gen. Atterbury said that his
road will endeavor to complete elec-
tricification of it's lines within two
years, as contribution toward the un-
employment problem, The original
plan called for four-year reconstruc-
ton program.
The present plane time from Hoover
Field to the Pennsylvania station is
hours and 40 minutes. That includes
the bus trip from the Newark airport
to the New York railroad terminal,
which consumes about 40 minutes
The projected electric service would
come within so minutes of equaling the
air time between the National Capital
and Manhattan. Pennsylvania of11cials
hope in this way to recover some of
the passenger traffic which has been lost
to the airlineS since establishment of
hourly, low-fare plane service between
the two cities.
LudingtOn Line Lower.
Round-trip rates by air to New York
on the Ludington line are slightly less
than the extra-fare rates by railroad
including Pullman. Eastern Air Trans
port rates are higher than the railroad
fare.
1t is estimated the planes carry more
than 5000 passengers q month"; a slice
of business that has cut heavily into
the railroad traf1c.
Possibly indicative of the speed con-
templated with the electric locomotives
is the fact that the Pennsylvania has
arranged to install new block signal
system designed especially to take care
of 90-mile-an-hour speeds. This means,
Of course, that the safety maximum
will be 90 miles an hour, but it is un-
derstood there will be maintained
comfortable margin under the safety
limit.
Plan Two New Tunnels.
The reconstruction of the Washing
ton-New York line will include two new
tunnels under the City of Baltimore
and new terminal facilities Sin Phila-
delphia.
The 130-pound rail, at the time of
its adoption by the Pennsylvania, was
heralded as the heaviest of its kind
The work of substituting 1t for lighter
rails was completed only recently.
With the demand for more speed,
however, engineers decided a still
heavier rail was advisable, with the re-
suit that the giant 152-pound type was
adopted. Announcement Of the pro-
posed change was made several weeks
ago before the American Society of
Civil Engineers by Elisha Lee, vice
president of the Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Lee said the new rail will meet
the strain Of 100 000-pound axle load
at speeds Of 100 miles an hour, as COM
pared with the maximum requirements
now of 80.000-pound axle loads and
speeds Of 80 miles an hour.
A cross-section of the new rail
cwarfs a cross section of the present
of the 60-pound rail used half GEN.
tury ago. A new type of splice bar
providing resiliency at the rail joint
and thereby lessening noise and in
creasing comfort of passengers, has
been adopted for the new rail.
Revenues Reduced.
Sagging passenger traffic, due to
plane and bus inroads. is said to have
led to the decision OF the pennsylvania
to take drastic steps to meet the in
creaSing competition. The railroads
have found their passenger business q
constant source Of worry. Most of the
revenues are coming from freight serv-
ice, and even this has felt the effect
of truck competition.
The Pennsylvania also is planning to
speed up its freight service between
Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.
Within the past two weeks the road
has established what 1t claims is the
fastest freight flyer" ever operated be-
tween those cities. The new train,
known as the Speed Witch" runs On
a regular daily schedule and cuts ap-
proximately "a hours on the former
running time. North Of New York the
train is operated in conjunction with
the New York, New Haven q Hartford
line. :