The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-27

EdsOm estimated 9S66 million which would offset wage in- creases of 9SS0 million and an esti- mated $S0 million increased expen- ses for safeguarding property in wartime.
 It's the passenger side of tho question which affects the average bloke and most, however, 30 let's have 6 look.
 In this foul ban of Q year oS ieAl, the railroads estimate they have carried about thre million soldiers In mass troop movements, on top of reg1ular civilian trafac and the movement of the military to and from home on furlough. Latest sta- tistics available, covering the first nine months of the year, show the roads carried S6l million passengers As against SS7 million in the same period Of l940, . sixeable up.
 Stating the figure another way, lt averages out as four railroad trips a year for every man, woman and child in the country. On the basis of passenger miles, the railroad StatisticianS estimate the total bus. hess for l941 will be about go bill. lion passenger miles, as against 26 billion last year and in all-time peak of Sl billion for 1929.
 MOST BY AUTO
 In spite of these somewhat incom- prehensible figures, the railroads haul Q surprisingly small portion of the country'S total travel. Ralph Budd, transportation commissioner in OPM, estimates the railroads get only 5 per cent Of the passenger traffic, 90 per cent of 1t now going by private auto. ( per cent by bus and 1 per cent by air and inland waterways.
 Pile the impact of the war effort on this situation. and you can look for some very definite trends:
 As the railroads are called upon for more and more troop move- ments, they will have to assign more equipment to the military. This will be coaches for the shorter hauls, with tourist accommodations and pulmans for the long haulS. To as- sign this equipment to the services, the railroads may have to start cur- tailing their regular schedules. Un. profitable trains, local trains other than coTnmuter trains will be hit first, Here the railroads will run in- to the state regulatory bodies and local chambers Of commerce which will start squAwking about having old No. l6 taken of the P. D, & q. why folks hereaboutS have been setting their watches by her whis- tie for years. Nevertheless, the rail- roads have been running hundreds of these accommodation trains and losing their shirts on them, and the war may sound their death whistle now.
 As automobile production is cur- tailed, as tires are ratloned, aS gaso- line consumption is limited forS pri- vate use - yes, that's coming, and MT. 1ckeS may be right the next time he yells, "Bool Gas shortagel" more passenger trafflc may be thrown at the railroads.
 MAY ENLARGE
 BUS HOLDINGS
 The railways may increase their holdings and operations of bus lines, though in this the roads are limited by Interstate Commerce Commis- sion hesitancy to permit control of q competing means of transporta- ton. Also when the roads 70 into bus lines, they must operate under railroad retirement act and railroad unemployment laws at an expense which independent bus line opera tors do not face.
 Any further assignment of com. mercial aircraft to the Army and Navy would give the railroads more Of the f1rst-claSs passenger traffic. This luxury travel is booming = there are 12i StreaTnliners in opera ton with 26 more under construc- ton - and it would grow naturally as the national income increases with war prosperity.
 Recent history of railroad paS- senger rates begins with the roads own experiments of the io30's, when fares were voluntarily cut to from 1 it2 cents to 2 Ia cents per mile in . depression effort to meet competi- ton. The average passenger rate for the whole country Is now $0.0I76 per passenger mile. A 10 per cent hike, In those rates still wouldn't bring them up to the 1921 average of s0,030s6 per passenger mile. And With Q federal tax now applying on railroad fares, if the ICC grants the rate raise, the government will be nnllAnAiRafs AaannA knwan krns,a Alaia