Evening star., 1932-04-17
Reviving the Railroads

entrance into New York and far
shorter line between the city and
Chicago-had completed the most i'm
portant and brilliant coup of his 20
years. Which. in the case Of Willard,
is saying great deal indeed
Against this credit side Of the
national consolidation plan there must
be recorded a debit item. The efforts
of three roads Of the NorthWest-the
Northern Pacific. Great Northern and
Burlington-to merge into single eff
cient railroad property to be known as
the Great Northern Pacific were
Quashed at Washington-for no ap-
parent reason greater than the fact
that the proposed Great Northern
Pacific Railway would not include tt>s
Chicago Milwaukee. St. Paul q Pacific,
which 20 years ago stretched its rails
across the northern rim Of the United
States from the Twin Cities to the
Puget Sound country, and which has
been regretting that step almost ever
since.
Which, geographically at least, brings
ne almost directly TO the main point
that I wish to make
All through these United States today
and unnecessary rail mileage. The age
Of innocence in which railways were
built here. there and everywhere across
the face Of the land. not infrequently
as strikes at the heart and fat treas
uries Of long established and prosperous
roads wished lot Of superfiuous rail
properties upon this country. No other
country in the world-except Canada
has been so -railroaded. Not
even the remarkable growth Of Ameri
can industry in the last 40 years has
been able to absorb this overproductCn
completely and put our surplus rail
miles to work And the recent stump.
the recent rise Of competition unfOra-
seen 40 or so years ago. when overpro-
duction of railroads was al its worst.
have only served TO aggravate the prob
lem
Overbuilt in Many Areas.
The overbuilding of railroads was not
limited to any one portion Of the coun-
try. Certain parts of New England
suffered from it, and also parts IF
Pennsylvania, Western New York. Ohio.
Illinois. Iowa and many other plaaes
But nowhere has the situation been
worse than in the Northwest. Yet this
same Northwest has been the theater
of some remarkably successful attempts
to simplify rail operation and. to some
extent at least. remove rail competition
without a leSsening of service to pa
irons.
The original railroad between those
three flourishing seaportS. Portland.
Tacoma and Seattle, was the line Of
the Northern Pacific, completed little
more than so years ago. When in the
nineties Hill first brought the apple of
his eye, the Great Northern. from ST.
Paul to the Puget Sound country. he
not only practically paralleled the
cross country route of Northern Pacific
for the entire distance. but forced the
older road to a compromise which re-
suited in his obtaining control Of it. As
a result. the Great Northern secured
most valuable running rights over the
Northern Pacific, all the way from
Seattle to Portland. Thus the construc-
tion of 200 miles of parallel lines was
avoided, even though some of it already
had been begun.
The paralleling performance of Great
Northern was repeated a decade later
by the Milwaukee, save that it was
never permitted running rights between
Tacoma and Portland. 1t did secure
them between Tacoma and Seattle over
the new line of the Oregon Washington
Railway 81 Navigation Co Oregon
Washington was Union Pacific and
Union Pacific was Hartman. Great
Northern and Northern Pacific were
decidedly-Hill
The two railroad captains locked
horns. They began spending money
like water. They built mile upon mile
Of superfuous lines down the valleys
of the Columbia and the Deschutes:
they wasted money on elaborate COM
pet1ng passenger stations standing side
by side in the city of Seattle. But when
it came to building separate land
parallel lines between Tacoma and
Portland, they became scared and
struck truce. Running rights over
the old line of the Northern Pacific
now double tracked and somewhat
shortened and improved-were ar
ranged for the Union Pacific. and three
railroads began running their trains
over 1t. This was accomplished with
such simplicity and complete success
that few years ago the plan was ex-
tended-competing trains of several
roads leaving terminals at almost pre-
cisely the same hours were combined.
all tickets being accepted upon any of
them. In this fashion a real saving
was made in operating costs without
detracting from the service offered So
much of a triumph was this plan in
fact that it later was again extended,
this time to three competing roads be-
tween Duluth and the Twin Cities
with equally successful results.
Thwarted by Competition.
This entire plan is so simple and so
practical that one wonders why It was
not put into force in many other sec
tions Of the land long ago. One reason
why it has not is. of course. that bogie-
man Of rail competition But there is
a very good answer to this suggestion.
The answer lies in the extreme East
ern and Western sections Of the land.
The New Haven and the Southern Pa
eiflc Gin California and in Oregon are
to large extent without rail competi-
ton. Yet each road renders more than
adequate passenger service to the terri
tory which 1t serves. There are no nicer
trains than the Yankee Clipper and the
Cascade and the Lark Hartford. Conn,
has but one railroad serving it; so has
Providence, r. I.
Compare these situations, where
there is either non-competitive rail
service or a pooled service with the
situation that exists today between
Chicago and st. Louis, between Chicago
and the Twin Cities, between Chicago
and Omaha and between Chicago and
st. Louis and New York. In any month,
in any week literally thousands of
waste miles of expensive through pas
senGer trans still are being operated
in these services. Almost all OF the un-
profitable locals and short-line trains
have nov been eliminated all over the
country, but while the little holes have
been plugged, there is much wastage
through the big ones This is true
even though at this very moment the
two chief competing roads between
New York and Chicago are preparing
to cut down and simplify saving OF
100000 miles (or IS 1000 OOO)
month.
The competitive waste between roads