Evening star., 1934-02-25
Drastic Changes,
GreaterSpeed,R Real
Comfort, Lower
FareS-ThuS the
Roads Prepare to
Lure Back the Lost
Passengers.
BY KATHARINE II. AMEND

p THAT old lady, the railroads, had called
in an advice to-the- -lovelorn" columnist
Is years ago-and taken her adv1ce-she
would not be struggling so hard today 10
hang onto John Public.
When after the war, John Public pegah
to saw. Mother let's get rid OF the old car.
we need something faster and something that
doesn't cost so much to keep up" she only SAID,
"John. that's good safe car. We put lot Oh
money into it. Your father always nKeo IL.
Anyway, I don't like to go fast. It's oao iof
the heart" 49,.
When he told her uneasily, Il think these
clothes of YOURS look kind Of old-fasnloneo.
And aren't you putting on too much welgnt!
she told him to mind his own business
And then she wondered why old John began
to run around with those happers' tne ao0o-
mobiles airplanes and buSses.
1t took the crash and depression 70 make neS
realize how far she had lost him.
Now she is calling the courts to try TO
bring John back to keep her in the style ana
comfort for which she was accustomed But IL
is far harder to get back man who has strayeo
than it is to keep him.
I Ter worst trouble is that she does not yet
! ] fully realize that the courts cannot turn
the trick if she wants John Public back she
has to rejuvenate herself.
The railroads stand accused of having grown
fat wasteful and Indifferent to the public de-
SlreS III lie OdyS WilCh IliC oAiAJ SoAP~0-~
they had was from each other.
None of them ever cared great deal for
their passenger traffic; it made them too much
work As the countrys industrial expansion
gave them increasing freight they turned their
whole attention to wooing that source OF in
come. It provided the chief revenues to most
of the roads of the country.
They did not particularly like part carloads
of goods, either and did not handle them efh-
GENTLY and to the convenience OF their patrons.
What they wanted was great carloads OF
lumber, or heavy machinery, which could
be slammed on, dropped of and moved at
their leisure.
railroads safety of operation; it did that
through damage suits for loss OF life and goods
About 20 years ago the competition among
automobile manufacturers began producing the
cheaper, faster
People who had never travelled much before
acquired the habit man whose income was
30 small that he had never been able to take
his wife and children for a jaunt to the city,
because of the high fares prevailing on the
railroads. found he could load them all into a
hivver and take them to the city and back at
o cost no greater than that of single rail fare.
The development of travel habits in people
who had never been away from home before
represented potential, rather than an immed1-
ate loss to the railroads. They could have had
q net gain however, if they had had the fore
sight to reduce their costs of operation at the
right moment.
Better highways encouraged former train
patrons to desert
A NEW generation grew up with the auto
\ mobile habit. A lot of present-day young
sters have rarely ridden trains.
Local passenger traffic suffered first. People
who used to 60 up to town for the day in the
dusty, in -equent trains that stopped at every
hitching ost found it not only cheaper, but
cleaner d more convenient to drive them
selves in their own autos.
Short trips led to longer ones. About 1925
the railroads began to notice big drop In the
lucrative vacation crowds
Bright young men saw the possibilities Of
catering to people who did not yet have their
0wn They established bus lines.
At first the railroads ignored the busses, even