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Trains Magazine 1965 February SWitzerland South Shore
Trains Magazine 1965 February
February 1965 Volume 25 Number 4
NEWS - -- -3
RAILROAD NEWS PHOTOS - 10
STEAM NEWS PHOTOS - - 14
A PRETTY ONE - - - -18
A TALE OF TWO RAILROADS - 20
PHOTO SECTION- - - 35
THEN THERE WAS ONE - - 44 (south Shore)
SWITZERLAND, U. S. EDITION - 52
Railway post office 54Second section 59
Of books and trains 58Running extra 62
Interchange 62
COVER: Ex-NYC R-2 class electric 704 leads a South Shore fan excursion. Steve Meyers photo.
PASSENGERS: TABOO TOPIC
THAT Latin wit of B. C. times, one Publilius Syrus, is credited with this familiar line: "To do two things at once is to do neither." It is apparent in 1965 A.D. that the railroads subscribe to this maxim heart and soul. The rails gross approximately 8 billion dollars a year on freight and 1 billion on passenger and allied services; they cling to the former for survival and have given up on the latter. The argument goes that intercity passenger traffic is synonymous with deficits; that to innovate or invest in it is to dissipate energies and capital which should obviously be expended on a growth product line (say, piggyback or unit coal trains); that if we don't do or say anything about the passenger problem it might just happily die of attrition.
The evidence of apathy surrounds us knee deep, of course: CB&Q runs the Morning Zephyr up to the Twin Cities observation car first. . . . NYC and SP refuse to honor Rail Travel Credit cards.
C&NW's Ben Heineman tells Life that intercity rail passengers will vanish within 10 to 15 years. . . . Only a single Eastern road indulges in pricing experimentation: B&O. . . . Mopac downgrades the Colorado Eagle from a streamliner to a milk run overnight without comment; SP merges the Sunset and Golden State west of El Paso sans explanation. . . . Security analysts ignore the passenger problem; it's poor taste to mention the issue. . . . Mention Japan's 125 mph Bullet Line or CN's Red, White & Blue fares or France's car-sleeper overnighters and the answer is: Sure, they're nationalized, or look how many autos per capita they have overseas. . . . UP covers its dome seats with tasteless red plastic covers; window shades and seat upholstery in NYC sleepers are tacky and stained; the Daylight's automat car may have exhausted its supply of main entrees by noon.
Ironically, we at least heard about passengers back in 1957 when they lost the rails a record 724 million dollars. Railroad presidents smote their breasts before regulators and senators, dabbled in low-center-of-gravity lightweights, and contradicted each other's estimates of who would haul people the longest. But the prexies have apparently accepted a loss of 399 million dollars a year (in 1963). Now, assuming the loss figure is legitimate (and we devoted much of an entire passenger issue to proving that it was in April 1959 TRAINS), how can the rails abide it if passenger-miles decline only 1 per cent a year (which is the A.A.R.'s guesstimate for 1964 as we go to press)? Why, 399 million is more money than all the railroads put together netted after fixed charges in 1961. It exceeds the gross revenues of such a giant as Chesapeake & Ohio.
Yet we hear precious little about passengers today from anyone, pro or con.
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