Since the issuance of these orders, the line has been equipped with signals and a much shorter headway interval has become possible. Therefore, the Commission took up the proposition of abrogating the previous orders and causing inspections to be made of the service rendered as a basis for the adoption of a new service order. A hearing was held and closed on May 2, 1917, at which the Commission took testimony as to the need for increased service, the counts of traffic made by its inspectors having shown that at certain hours the service was inadequate. As a result the Commission adopted an order providing that generally throughout the day-time hours the company should operate cars in each direction daily past Ocean avenue, Ozone Park, at intervals of not more than fifteen minutes and that in rush hours a 7-minute headway be maintained. Provision was also made that the company should operate during the day-time hours on Sundays and holidays on a headway of not more than fifteen minutes. The order was accepted by the company and took effect on May 28.

Case No. 2210-Railroad Corporations-Additional Safety Precautions at Grade Crossings.-At the meeting of the Commission on May 23, 1917, Commissioner Charles S. Hervey presented a memorandum which was unanimously approved, recommending that a hearing be held on the question of lowering gates at railroad grade crossings within the City, between midnight and 5 A. M. daily, for a three months' trial. The Commission directed that a hearing be held on June 6, 1917. In his memorandum Commissioner Hervey pointed out the very large number of grade crossings still existing within the City of New York and stated that with the constantly increasing use of motor driven vehicles, both for business and for pleasure, the problem of the protection of the general public using grade crossings becomes constantly more serious. Statistics contained in his memorandum showed that there was a total of 429 grade crossings in the City and of such number 187 were protected by gates operated continuously for every train movement over the crossing during the entire year and 17 crossings on the Rockaway Beach branch of the Long Island Railroad by gates operated only for a part of

the year. Certain other crossing gates were operated only during the summer months, and in some instances operated during the daytime for the entire year, but at night only during summer months. He pointed out that the records of the Commission contain a large number of reported instances where the gatemen have left crossings unguarded because they have fallen asleep and persons in vehicles have had narrow escapes from death or serious injury. He stated that one railroad official had suggested as a way of minimizing this danger that the gates be kept closed during the slack traffic hours of the night, generally after midnight, and be raised only at the request of pedestrians or drivers so as to permit them to cross the tracks. The Commission held that as the gates must of necessity be lifted to allow vehicles to cross the tracks, the effect of such an order would be to keep the gatemen awake to answer the demands of traffic and thus reduce the hazard.

The Commission fixed June 6 as a date for a public hearing on the matter. Preliminary to it an investigation was conducted by the Commission and a tally made of the vehicles and the pedestrians using many of the principal crossings between 12 midnight and 5 A. M. Representatives of the railroads, of the Police Department and others were present at the hearing, and a general endorsement of the plan was given, with opposition from only one person, who held it to be a violation of the rights of the general public to compel vehicles to stop at railroad crossings on highways and that the providing of a sufficient degree of safety was the proper function of the railroad company. Representatives of the Police Department gave the project their endorsement and at the request of Commissioner Hervey made a second study of conditions at 145 crossings, with recommendations relative to each embodied in a letter to the Commission. On August 8, 1917, the Commission adopted an order requiring that the gates at these crossings be lowered from midnight to 5 o'clock A., M. The order applied to crossings on lines of the New York Central Railroad Company, The Long Island Railroad Company, the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway Company and several terminal companies. In two cases on the lines of the Staten Island Railway Company the hours during which the gates should be down were fixed from 2 A. M. to 5 A. M.

In connection with the adoption of the order, the Commission approved a memorandum by Commissioner Hervey in which he reviewed the testimony presented at the hearing, stating that it

ded to show that the bar which crossing gates ordinarily formed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic over grade crossings is not in and of itself an absolute safeguard to the public, and that danger still lurks in the failure of watchmen to lower the gates in time to prevent access to the tracks. The Commissioner held that a more positive means of protection seemed to be necessary and recommended that the Commission should order a trial of the lowered gates plan in the effort to determine if it would not materially improve conditions till such time as all grade crossings may be removed.

The order is to remain in effect for one year and its results observed to date are highly satisfactory.

Case No. 2201 The Westchester Electric Railroad Company -Petition of Peter H. Herrmann, et al., as to Rate of Fare between Wakefield and Yonkers.— The complainants in this case protested against the practice of the Westchester Electric Railroad Company in charging two fares ten cents — to the resi dents of the former village of Wakefield (now a part of the City of New York) desiring to go to Yonkers or desiring to reach the Wakefield section from Yonkers, and asking that the railroad company be ordered to carry passengers between the two points for five cents. This petition was investigated by the Commission and the complaint referred to the company for answer. The latter replied that it was unable to provide the ride desired for a five-cent fare. The complainants, informed of the company's answer, declared it to be unsatisfactory and demanded a public hearing, asserting that transfer rights existed under the company's franchise. After due consideration, the Commission approved an opinion by Commissioner Travis H. Whitney, recommending that the complainants be permitted to file an amended complaint, so as to make the Yonkers Railroad Company a party to the proceeding. The Commissioner held that a hearing would be necessary, inasmuch as the franchise rights involved were not so unequivocal as to make a determination possible without an investigation of the issues. He also recommended, if an amended complaint were filed, that the matter

be set down for a joint hearing by the Commissions for the First and Second Districts.

Case No. 2238-Westcott Express Company - Rates, Regu lations, Equipment and Service.- Following the receipt of communications from several complainants as to the rates charged for taxicab service by this company and as to serious delays in the receipt of baggage consigned to it for delivery, the Commission on its own motion undertook an investigation, and on September 5 directed that a hearing be held on September 14. A number of witnesses testified at hearings subsequently held, as to the serious delays experienced in receiving baggage and of unpleasant consequences resulting from the company's failure to make deliveries as promised.

The investigation into the question of taxicab rates developed a number of interesting features, particularly as to a contract between the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Westcott Express Company involving prices charged for taxicab service and further as to the steps leading up to the signing of the contract. The executive head of a competitive taxicab company testified that his company had proposed to the Pennsylvania Railroad that he be permitted to install a taxicab service at the station and to put into effect rates for service materially lower than those offered by the Westcott Company and even lower than the rates authorized under aldermanic ordinance within the City of New York. The contention was made that the Westcott Company, operating between railroad terminals, was not a public hack company in the purview of the municipal ordinance and, therefore, did not come under the jurisdiction of the City authorities, but under the Public Service Commission.

In respect of the contract which had been proposed between the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the competitive company, it was charged by an officer of the latter that this contract was practically ready for signing when the railroad company suddenly withdrew and signed a contract with the Westcott Company to provide service at Westcott rates.

The Commission on November 21, after giving consideration to the evidence presented, issued an order, accepted by the company, materially reducing the taxicab rates of the Westcott Com

pany, so that they practically conformed to the rates charged elsewhere within the City of New York. The question of the company's methods in handling and delivering baggage was left for later determination.

Case No. 2018 —Taxpayers' Alliance of the Borough of The Bronx, et al., Complainants, vs. The New York and Harlem Railroad Company, The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company and The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company Routes, Service and Rates of Fare in Manhattan and The Bronx.-This case arose from a formal complaint filed with the Commission late in the Summer of 1915 by the Taxpayers' Alliance and other civic bodies of The Bronx, described generally as the United Bronx Rapid Transit Association. The complaint among other things alleged that the lines of the railroad companies named were operated to the detriment of The Bronx. It was set forth that the passenger tariffs between Grand Central station and stations in The Bronx were excessive and, taken in connection with the train schedules, were such as to lessen, rather than to maintain or increase, passenger traffic, and further urged that the Commission take such action as should cause the railroads named to operate a substantial rapid transit service between points in The Bronx and the Grand Central station. The complainants asked also that the Harlem division of the New York Central be restored as a local and suburban railroad and that the Commission direct both the New York Central and the New Haven roads to provide access to the Borough of Manhattan other than over the tracks of the Harlem division; that train service to and from The Bronx on the Harlem division be increased to a ten-minute headway during rush hours and a twenty-minute headway at other times of the day; that the fare to be charged on the Harlem division be not more than five cents between the Grand Central station and Wakefield the latter the last station within the City limits and that both the New York Central and the New Haven roads be directed to stop all of their trains, limited as well as local, at one station at least in the Borough of The Bronx. Hearings were begun on November 4, 1915, continued through the remainder of that year and were ordered closed on May 16, 1916, many witnesses being