From Our U.S.A. Correspondent.
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Some Comparisons with England.
One cannot spend much time in the U.S.A. witheut realizing the great difference between, inttr atia, British and American methods of passenger transportation in cities, and this difference is as great in the smaller cities of the middle west as in New York and Boston. The great four-track subway of New York City is a combination of London's Metropolitan-District railway and the newer tubes, its prominent feature being the express trains, on the two inner tracks, which convey passengers, from north. to south of Manhattan Island, at some 50 miles an hour, without more than two or three stoppages en route; by changing from the " express " to the " local " at one of these stations, one may easily get to any other, and it will
be seen that, by a judicious selection, one may arrange a rapid journey from point to point to suit one's own requirements. The brunt of the " up-town " and " downtown " traffic, at evening and morning, is borne by this line, and its rapidity and efficiency, in competition with the surface methods of transit, insures a high standard of those qualities in the latter.
The tramways are on both the overhead-trolley and the conduit systems, and, in one or two side streets, horst: traffic still obtains; Fifth Avenue is the only mein artery not laid with either overhead, surface or subway rails, and not many of the cross streets are without tramways, in the operation of which several companies are engaged. The tramway fare in America is universally five cents (21d.), tvhether one journeys 100 yards or l() miles. The public seems to he satisfied with this errengement. and so, presumably, are the .directors: in the heart d the cities, the profits must be very large, as no American ever walks anywhere if he can help doing so. It is not easy to see how it can he made to pay to carry a passenger from, say, the south-western suburbs of Boston to the seaside or country resorts on the north-east, a distance of some 12 miles, occupying an hour and a quarter, for
the same fare, especially when it is remembered that, in winter, the cars are electrically heated— a most necessary condition with an external temperature of zero, or thereabouts. Double-deck tramcars are unknown, at least in the Eastern States, the difficulty of heating being one of the chief reasons for this.
As may he expected with the above-indicated complete system of tramways, ordinary vehicular traffic, as it is known in London, is non-existent; and, in spite of the growing number of automobiles of all sorts and sizes, the congested conditions at, say, the Mansion House, Ludgate Circus and the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street have no parallels in New York. There are no motorbuses in Boston, and as yet New York tem only boast of about 60 of these vehicles. They consist of some 50 de Dion omnibuses, with ordinary double-deck bodies carrying 34 passengers. and 10 petrol-electries fitted with de Dion engines and electrical-transmission gear made by the General Electric Co. These latter vehicles appear to he giving satisfaction. At present, the New York Transportation Co. owns all these omnibuses, which operate on Fifth Avenue, and in one or two eases along certain adjoiniug streets. Following the example of the tramway companies, the uniform-fare system is employed, but the fare is 10 cents. (.5d.) for any distance. The vehicles are well patronised, in spite of what would be considered in England an exorbitant fare, as the longest distance from
end to end of the route cannot be more than miles. Against this, there must he set the facts that wages in every trade are at least double what they are in Landon, and that maintenance and running charges are higher in proportion. The service is maintained with regularity, and the vehicles seem to run well to schedule time, except under such extreme conditions as I witnessed after the recent blizzard. At the time I wrote my last notes. this storm was raging in all its unpieturesque violence,
notwithstanding which the omnibuses and cabs were running well. After the cessation of the general traffic on the Friday night, however, the snow drifted in the streets until, by the following morning, an even 2 ft. was piled along the main thoroughfares, and traffic for some hours was almost impossible. It must be confessed that the life of an operating engineer, under such circumstances as those, is "not a happy one." Petrol tank-vans cannot get out, and vehicles which are made to face the deep snow return later with strained steering gear, etc.
The same Transportation Co. operates a considerable number of taxicabs, and these are run in competition with the vehicles of the Taxicab Co. of New York, to which I have before had occasion to refer. I can only say that my first impressions of the latter company's vehicles were received six months ago, and they are in consequence six months older now. At that time, I somewhat timorously called at the City Hall to ask for a copy of the regulations relating to the construction of taxicabs, half expecting that my audacity would result in my being blindfolded, gagged and bound, and removed for secret examination by the inquisitorial department of
Tammany Hall. I was almost disappointed, when a young and quite-harmless looking person informed me that there were no regulations governing the construction, but only the ordinary restrictions applying to hansom and other cabs for public service, and that I only had to take out an ordinary motorcar registration to be free to use any vehicle I liked. It is quite evident, as I then remarked, that full advantage of this freedom from restraint is taken by some cab owners, but I must certainly concede that the 200 or so taxicabs owned by the Transportation Cu. are to be classed as exceptions. Much of the trouble is due to badvery bad—drivers, and this company has at least tackled that problem in the right way. It trains its own men, and, having secured efficiency in this respect, retains it by paying the men an upstanding wage, and not leaving them to make a large percentage out of the earnings of the cab, the whole of the takings going to the company. The fares, in cabs, average rather more than double those of London, and the gratuity to the driver goes up in proportion.
One of my photographs shows a cab entering Madison Square, from Fifth Avenue, after the snow had been partially cleared away: the conditions depicted can, however, hardly be described as ideal. H.K.T.