Railroads Resurgent

Swiftly after the War, U. S. railroads began to lose their 50-year-old transportation monopoly. To oil and gasoline pipe lines, trucks and government-subsidized barge lines, went their freight. To buses, airplanes and private cars went their passengers. Traditionally as reactionary as bankers, railmen were slow to reach for their thinking caps to cope with this new situation. An additional obstacle to concerted, thoughtful action was the industry's diversity of interests, there being almost as many railroads in the country as newspapers. In the fourth year of Depression, last week Pennsylvania R. R. introduced an elastic freight service, and Southeastern and Western roads did what they admittedly should have done 15 years ago--slashed passenger rates.

Year ago smart, genial Whitefoord Russel Cole's Louisville & Nashville applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for a reduction in coach fare from 3.6-c- per mi. to 2-c- A few Western roads (TIME, Oct. 23). Mobile & Ohio, struggling in receivership between two rivers and five competitors, and Atlanta & West Point R. R. followed suit. Meantime, the Southern was experimenting on branch lines with a 1 1/2-c- coach fare. This line found that with base fares cut more than one-half, net earnings nevertheless increased appreciably. With these heartening precedents, more than 1,000 lines west of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio and Potomac applied for and received from I. C. C. permission for a 2-c- rate effective Dec. 1, Southern and Seaboard Airline reduced to 1 1/2-c-. These resurgent railroads happily announced that they can now carry passengers cheaper and faster than buses or private cars. Comparative fares :

Route Ry. ...............................Coach Fare & Time...................................................Bus Fare & Time

Washington-Atlanta ..........$ 9.58--16 1/2 hr........................................$16.65-- 23 hr.

Knoxville-Chattanooga .....$ 1.67-- 2 3/4hr..........................................$ 2.30-- 3 1/2hr.

Richmond-Miami ..................$15.59--25 1/4hr....................................$20.15-- 35 hr.

Chicago-San Francisco ..... $34.40--59 hr................................................$27.50--82 hr.

Los Angeles-San Francisco. ..$ 9.47--12 hr...............................................$10.00 --16 hr.

Omaha-Denver ..........................$10.75--14 1/2 hr................................ $11.00-- 23 1/4 hr.

St. Louis-El Paso....................... $24.44-- 32 hr........................................... $32.00--47 3/4hr.

New Orleans-Nashville. ............$12.23-- 15 hr............................................. $ 9.85-- 22 hr.

At the same time, Southeastern and Western roads dropped the 50% Pullman surcharge and reduced first-class (chair and sleeping car) fare from 3.6-c- a mi. to 3-c-. Eastern and Midwestern lines have so far failed to follow suit because passenger business is their chief source of revenue. Stung by the railroad's bid for passenger service, the Association of Motor Bus Operators appealed to President Roosevelt. Under threat of upsetting their NRA code cart the association demanded that the roads be prevented "from operating at ruinous rates designed to cripple or destroy highway transportation."

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