COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF STREET RAILWAY OPERATIONS FOR EACH YEAR, JULY 1, 1907, TO JUNE 30, 1917 (Includes all companies operating surface, elevated or underground lines in the City of New York, with the exception of the Yonkers Railroad Company. Statistics applicable to a single date refer to June 30, the close of the fiscal year) 1917 Passenger fares - number 4,394,250 Passenger fares - amount. Increase per cent.. Total transportation revenue... Total operating revenue. Total operating expenses. $75,973,728 $79,561,934 Revenue car miles.. 359,827,602 314,340,221 327,410,218 4,848,977 4,967,683 4,952,418 328,208,948 327,753,016 5,257,020 1,358,000,407 1,402,417,642 1,531,262,914 1,603,901,397 1,680,913,935 1,769,876,508 1,813,204,356 1,807,632,726 1,898,735,615 1,918,812,229 3,710,384 3,842,240 4,195,241 $67,126,122 $69,592,489 315,774,404 318,395,376 320,348,388 326,709, 172 335,986,610 1,181 333,787, 138 1,219 338,223,257 345,281,963 359,048, 154 364,219,050 $87,718,359 5.18 4.82 $84,275,274 $88,353,274 $89,361,262 $88,783,012 5,187,802 $93,176,216 $94,547,916 4.95 1.47 $89,535,399 $93,791,891 $95,202,877 69,026,613 72,282,014 79,593,910 83,751,415 88,242,144 92,141,605 94,155,521 93,644,428 98,628, 185 100,185,796 * Includes mileage of special or chartered cars and mileage of regular cars between carhouses and initial route terminal ("idle mileage ") excluded in other years. † Insolvency and default of interest by Manhattan surface companies explain reduction in fixed charges in 1909. The deficit of 1908 was changed to a surplus when the insolvent New York City Railway Company, which owned railway property in Westchester county, but none in New York City, abandoned the lease of the Metropolitan Street Railway and ceased to report. Its deficit amounted to more than $12,000,000. CAPITALIZATION AND REVENUE OF TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES REPORTING TO THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION FOR THE FIRST DISTRICT Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1917 Brooklyn, Queens County & Sub. R. R. Co. Prospect Park & Coney Island R. R. Co.. Manhattan Surface Roads Bleecker St. & Fulton Ferry R. R. Co.. Ft. George & Eleventh Ave. R. R. Co.. New York & Harlem R. R. Co.. Ninth Avenue Railroad Co., The. Thirty-fourth St. Crosstown Ry. Co. • 195,585,000 00 763,574,085 39,866,146 44 (21,454,892 75) $66,132,923 48 (414,193,992) 105,469,564 09 (349,380,093) (18,411,253 69) 123,332, 183 66 57,138,138 59 10,597,271 27 68,556,999 1 5,999,186 95 221,917,542 173,931,272 11,348,057 92 3,507,310 45 100,000 00 76,044,234 97 748,000 00 $2,500,000 00 800,000 00 2,000,000 00 2,000,000 00 2,500,000 00 Second Ave. R. R. Co. in the City of N. Y., * [3,229,000 00] For footnotes, see next page. The amount in the 1 Includes $1,756,909.91 revenue from Hudson Terminal buildings and real estate operations. 2 Capitalization for the corporation and the receiver are both shown here. brackets represents certificates of indebtedness matured and unpaid. • Capitalization for the corporation and the receiver are both shown here. The amount in the brackets is composed of $89,000 debenture bonds matured and unpaid and $3,140,000 receiver's certificates. One-fourth of the capital stock is estimated to represent this company's street railway, which is excluded from the mortgage securing its bonds. 5 Consists of securities issued under Contract No. 1, $48,889,679.26; under Contract No. 2, $5,403,045.74, and estimate of security issues applicable to the lines in operation under Contract No. 3 (assumed to be one-fifth of the total issue or $11,840,204.48). • This is one-half of the total issue of corporate stock and corporate stock notes for Contract No. 4, here assumed to be applicable to subways completed and in operation. STREET RAILROAD SERVICE AND FACILITIES The Commission maintains a Transit Bureau, which is charged with the duty of making inspections and checking the service rendered by the several companies furnishing rapid transit, street railway and similar service. This Bureau has special functions, which include investigation into transportation requirements, the making of traffic surveys, formulation of suggestions or recommendations as to relief and improvement of service, investiga tion of complaints, assistance in the preparation of data required for hearings on transportation subjects and the furnishing of such expert assistance to the Commission in the handling and disposing of the transportation matters as come within its purview. The work of the Bureau is in charge of a Chief, who directs the staff, which consists of one General Inspector, four Supervising Inspectors, seven Assistant Supervising Inspectors and twenty-four Transit Inspectors. In addition there is also a clerical staff attached to the office. During the year the Bureau made 1,022 investigations, 737 of which related to complaints and 285 of which related to departmental matters or to activities. set in motion on the initiative of the Bureau. A number of special investigations were also made directly for the members of the Commission or for heads of its Bureaus. This work is varied in its character and includes the checking of conditions of operation with general reference to such matters as heating, ventilation, traffic congestion, station and terminal facilities, transfers, rates of fare, etc. The work of the Bureau is constantly increasing as traffic of all sorts increases in New York from year to year. The division of traffic in New York City throughout the day,and commonly termed the traffic day,- is divided into rushhour and non-rush hour periods. The rush-hour periods are generally from 7 to 10 A. M. and from 4 to 7 P. M. The heaviest traffic, or, as it is commonly called, the “peak load,” is found usually in the morning, between 8 and 9 o'clock, while in the evening it occurs between the hours of 5:30 and 6:30. The rush hours, however, are subject to slight fluctuation between the mid-summer and the mid-winter périods, the latter representing the season of heaviest traffic in the city, beginning a week or two before Christmas and continuing until a week or two after January 1. When the press of traffic is at its highest, the rush hours, both morning and evening, are somewhat longer than at other times of the year, owing to the fact that the amount of traffic offered to the various rapid transit lines is more, oftentimes, with tracks and cars loaded to capacity, than those lines may carry within ordinary rush-hour periods. In Manhattan, there is also a characteristic after-theatre rush hour in the evening, and in the sum mer months, particularly on lines reaching to some of the sea beach points within the city limits, there is a traffic offering on Sundays and holidays equal to, if not exceeding, the heaviest press of winter time rush hours. In general, however, traffic on elevated and subway lines is much lighter in summer than in winter. In Manhattan the maximum movement of cars on surface lines is about 120 per hour, a headway of 30 seconds. On the elevated lines of Manhattan, the shortest headway is one minute six seconds on one track, while in Brooklyn it is one minute twenty seconds on one track. The shortest headway in the First Subway, operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, is one minute forty-eight seconds, while in the Fourth Avenue subway of Brooklyn, operated by the New York Municipal Railway Corporation, the headway is two minutes. This latter figure represents the operation in one direction over the Manhattan bridge. As stated elsewhere in this report, the year just ended was remarkable in the amount of new service furnished to the traveling public in New York City by the opening of rapid transit lines constructed under the Dual System of rapid transit. A full description of the several lines opened will be found in another chapter. Suffice to say that these lines have opened up new and extensive territories for homes in the outlying suburbs. New sections of Brooklyn and Queens and The Bronx are enjoying real rapid transit for the first time. Despite the high cost of building materials and the relatively small amount of construction of apartments and small houses recently, the increase of population in the suburban communities served by these new lines is remarkable. A marked relief to the condition of extreme congestion of population heretofore existing in the so-called downtown sections of the city is already noted. In addition to the opening of these lines many other new traffic facilities and improvements in service were placed at the disposal of the traveling public during 1917. Some of the most important of these were the following: |