R for Better Service

Something is always happening to make commuters mad at the Long Island Rail Road. For instance: a waddling, mangy dog trotted for two miles down the track ahead of a local train jammed with commuters from Far Rockaway. The irked Manhattan-bound commuters were late again, as were other hundreds on a dozen trains that trailed the dog-slowed train.

For this and other odd reasons (wet leaves on rails causing driving wheels to skid, burned-out signal lights, removing stub born drunks from trains, and stalled automobiles from grade crossing), 3,278 out of 21,646 passenger trains were late during the month.

This was the worst month the Long Island ever had. But even in a good month there are close to 2,000 trains late on the road, which has the heaviest commuter traffic (and lowest fares) of any railroad into Manhattan. Trains, always full, run nose to tail morning & night. But last fortnight Long Island suburbia was thrilled by a glimpse of a better future, a vision of clean, fast and comfortable trains, clicking off their schedules with streamliner punctuality. The Long Island would like to be such a railroad after the war, and said so, in a pamphlet issued to every passenger. The pamphlet was based on recommendations made by J. G. White Engineering Corp., which the harassed management called on in 1941.

White Corp.'s rejuvenating tonic is compounded of many ingredients, and is expensive. For example, the Long Island is the only U.S. railroad now using double-decker coaches (it has three, low-slung to slide into tunnels); White Corp. recommended construction of a whole new fleet of them. Other medicine: electrification of 141 additional miles of line, improved riding comfort through installation of draught-proof windows, better car ventilators and lights, seats shaped to fit the human form, and heavier ballasted roadbed; in short, all the things other railroads have. The cost: $30 million.

The Catch is that the Long Island cannot afford to spend such important money to improve a passenger service on which it lost $20 million in the seven years from 1934 through 1940. The Long Island states its case with complete candor. Its open books show that the railroad has avoided bankruptcy only through credits totaling $9.3 million from its rich parent, the Pennsylvania. Thus the promise of Utopian commuter service on the 364-mile Long Island is hedged with two provisos: 1) a 20% fare increase for 55 million commuters, which White recommended; 2) easing of the crushing property taxes levied against the railroad by local governments and used in part to build superhighways and extend subway services that have cut the railroad's busi ness by 50 million passengers since 1929.

The Vote. The fare increase would be the first in over 20 years for Long Island commuters. During that time taxes have increased 164%. Grade-crossing elimination has cost the Long Island $39.4 million--money that might otherwise have been spent for more and better equipment. The Long Island now put to a commuter vote (by a return-mail post card) the problem of passenger fares v. capital expenditures.

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