Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-03-26
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Unit, Local IL, and it at present
employed in the City Engineer
ing Department. He spent many
night hours thinking this pro-
ject out and getting it ready TO
put down on paper. He used his
extensive artistic ability in max
ing the drawings. Without his
help, it would have been i'm
possible for me to prepare so
complete a report.
l fully realize that when a
person first hears of and looks
at this idea it seems like some
thing out of Buck Rogers or
Flash Gordon. After thinking
the idea over and particularly
thinking of conditions as they
now exist on our city streets, |
believe you will find that 1t
does not seem quite so screwy
or quite as much wild dream
as it did at first glance.
To talk of a project such as
this and to think about its cost
would naturally scare the aver
age person almost jittery. We
figured the cost Of this would
run 25 to 80 million dollars ex-
elusive of rolling stock. Many
people seem to think this esti-
mate to be low. This is probably
true at present prices. However,
such a job as this, if we started
planning Immediately, would
probably not be ready for con-
struction under a year and
half to two years.
THE COST
The most important thing to
look at in a project of this kind
is not its cost. It is rather what
is its cost as compared with the
economic and other benefits to
the people of the community. In
other words, the project should
be evaluated in the same terms
that we evaluate anything we
purchase. First of all, we must
think-do we need it, secondly,
do we want 1t and thirdly, will
the cost outweigh our need and
want.
l believe that the need would
greatly outweigh our first esti-
mated cost or even a cost much
greater. / feel that the desire TO
have such a project would be
there because of its more obvi-
Gus advantages in our daily
lives.
l am strongly of the opinion
that this could be financed out
of operating revenues of the sys-
tenn itself even though present
revenues of the mass transporta-
tioon system of this city would
not so indicate. The reason / feel
this way is simply this. Accord
ing to figures furnished by the
American Transit Association
and a study made by the Metro
politan Planning Committee of
the Chamber of Commerce, To-
ledo's transit system is used less
than half that of transit systems
in cities of equal size. This con-
dition exists because of our
traffic problem as pointed out
last week.
ESTIMATE
Those who feel that our esti-
mate was quite low are engi-
neers who have some knowledge
of the cost of the construction
OF such a project in other cities.
] am firmly convinced, however,
that even though these people
do have some factual data upon
which to base their conclusions,
they are overlooking the fact
that we have somewhat diff
ferent ground conditions in this
area than those upon which
they base their opinion. We feel
that all excavations and con-
struction, with the exception of
that in the downtown area, can
be done by the open-cut method
rather than extensive tunneling
The actual proof of this, of
course, would have to be left
for more detailed engineering
study.
Last week we touched but
lightly upon the advantages TO
the public and TO the community
We would like this week to-
sketch briefly for you some of
the advantages the construction
OF a subway system would give
to Toledo.
First Of all, removing the
transit system from the down
town streets and allowing Il 10
proceed unobstructed through
the downtown area would great
ly speed up the entire system.
Next, an underground railway
system running direct from the
densely populated and industrial
area of West Toledo TO the
downtown section, entirely un-
hampered by any other kind of
traffic, would provide really fast
and easy transportation.
A person could board an ex-
press subway car at Jackman
Road and Sylvania and travel
the six miles to the downtown
area in eleven minutes. A per-