Subsidy or Else?

Putting on the pressure, money-losing eastern railroads last week appealed to three states for tax relief or subsidy. The alternative: shut down some major passenger lines.

P: New York Central's President Alfred Edward Perlman warned that the line was ready to cut off all commuter service into Manhattan, close the famed Grand Central Terminal and terminate all routes 43 railroad miles away at Harmon, N.Y. unless the state and its cities "help" the line overcome its overall $1,000,000-per-week passenger loss. If the Central should move out, New York City would lose its third biggest (after Consolidated Edison and New York Telephone Co.) taxpayer ($16 million last year). To keep it, the city last week followed one Perlman suggestion, started a study of the possibility of "integrating"' the line's Park Avenue tracks into the city's subway system, which could mean some payment to the Central.

P: In Massachusetts, the New Haven Railroad cheered for a bill to give a $900,000 subsidy to the line over the coming twelve months. Unless it passes, the New Haven may make good its longstanding threat to cut off passenger trains on the Old Colony Line, which would strand thousands of Boston's South Shore commuters.

In New Jersey, nine eastern rail lines, including the Pennsylvania and the New York Central, urged Governor Robert Meyner to postpone their $18.5 million tax bill for 1958 to ease their "insurmountable burdens."

Though "subsidy" has long been a dirty word in the transportation business, chances are good that the troubled rails will get some aid.

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