The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-07-28
New Era Coming In
 Railroad Travel
Speed Will Be Doubled and Fares Reduced to Cent a
 Mile Says Roosevelt Advisor

New York, July 2s-A new era in railroad travel is predicted by George Creel, close friend and ad- visor of President Roosevelt, who has been looking over the transpor- tation picture in an effort to find out what ought to be done about 1t. He reports a vast change in the spirit of big rail executives, with progress as the order of the day. Railroad speeds, he prophecies, will be doubled during the next few years, and the cost of passen- ger travel will be decreased to one cent mile or less.
 "The railroads are awakening" MT Greet reports in summing up his conclusions in Golfers Weekly. 'They are taking off their Rip Van Wrinkle whiskers. Stream-lined, air. conditioned, aluminium trains will soon pick you up and whisk you along at so to 100 miles an hour on rubber cushions-and at one fourth the present fares.
 "Only the most pigheaded execu- tive will deny that in the past the railways have stood like iron against the thrust of new ideas. They sneered at the telegraph; they refused to build refrigerator cars, compelling the formation of pri- vate companies; they would not speed up their box cars beyond 12 miles an hour and let express com panies capture the fast freight traf- fic; they sat idle whitle interurban trolleys took away their patrons; finally, stone-blind to the possibil- ities of automotive transport, they did little to meet the competition of the busses and trucks beyond clamoring for legislation that would tax them off the highways.
 All this, however, relates to the past. Nine executives out of ten have had the sense to realize that they were going deeper and deeper into the red because railroad serv- ice had not shown an improvement in 30 years. Uncomfortable coaches dirty and noisy creeping, along at an average speed of 25 miles an hour, and even the so-called light ming expresses doing no better than an average of 38!
 Tt can now be said, however, that the steam lines are on the eve of a revolution that will make present day rail travel seem every whit as antiquated as the stage coach and the ferrlboat.
 Inventions and Improvements already under way make it certain that the next few years will see trains running from coast to coast in two or three days, and this in cleanliness and comfort; trains in which the cars are built of alumi- mum, aluminium alloy or stainless steel, light and gay as ragon flies; Diesels, electric or gasoline engines replacing the chugging, snorting. smoke -be1ching locomotive, and in- stead of the old blunt-nosed con- struction, everything streamlined to a point where wind resistance is reduced to 0 minimum. As result of the new construction and in creased motive power, speeds will average 80 to 125 miles an hour.
 And travel will be cheap. It is in connection with the important matter of cost that we come to the greatest and most Fundamental change that is going to be worked in railroad travel. Nothing is more certain than that there will be slashing reductions in the high pas senger rates that have done more than any other one thing to dimin- ish rail business and turn traffic over the busses. A rate of one cent 8 mile is confidently to be expect ed, and it is not at all unlikely that the price will drop as low as half a cent.