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tion required in the consideration of applications for the consent of the Commission to the issue of securities. These definitions are applicable to specific expenditures related to specific property rather than the property investment of the company in its entirety. A specific expenditure may therefore be properly classified as an 'addition' when it does not take the place of anything previously existing without implying that this justifies the issue of additional securities. Before determining that an outlay for an addition may be provided for by the issue of additional securities, the Commission may require evidence that the entire property investment has been increased by the amount of the specified addition, and that the expenditure has not been made from the proceeds of earlier issues of securities or from the proceeds of sale of other property or from funds set aside for the purpose of maintaining the investment unimpaired.

"It is the practice of the Commission in every case to require the presentation of evidence respecting the adequacy of the provision made for meeting depreciation or consump tion of capital by charges against revenue in accordance with the terms of accounts elsewhere defined in this classification. Unless and until otherwise ordered, the moneys reserved from income for the preservation of the capital investment are not required to be segregated from other assets in a special cash account or fund, nor to be retained until they can be expended in replacing any specific property. On the contrary, the moneys so reserved will be available for the acquisition of other assets and in the ordinary case will be concurrently expended either for replacements or additions to the end that there shall be no idle cash at the same time that there is current use for funds for capital investment.”

CHAPTER III

RAPID TRANSIT

The year just closed was probably the most important in rapid transit development for The City of New York of any twelve months in the history of the City, with the possible exception of 1904, when the First Subway was placed in operation. New rapid transit lines were opened in four of the five boroughs of the Greater City, affording much needed additional facilities.

The work of constructing the new rapid transit lines authorized by the agreements of 1913, known as the Dual System Contracts, continued during the year, although the construction work is now nearing completion. The Commission performs its functions of supervising and planning the Dual System under the Rapid Transit Act, being Chapter 4 of the Laws of 1891 and amendments since enacted. Under this statute the Commission is authorized to lay out routes for new lines of rapid transit within The City of New York, and when such routes are consented to by the local authorities and property owners, in compliance with the law, to make plans for and supervise the construction of the rapid transit lines. The Dual System of rapid transit, described as the world's largest engineering undertaking, will cost in the neighborhood of $400,000,000, or more than the cost of construction of the Panama Canal. When completed it will add about 355 track miles to the existing track mileage of old lines, or a total in excess of 630 track miles.

During the year 82 track miles of new lines were placed in operation, making a total of approximately 170 track miles of new lines in service. If unusual delays do not occur it is believed that fully 80 per cent of the entire new track mileage will be in use by the end of 1918.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company is the lessee of the elevated railroads in Manhattan and The Bronx, owned by the Manhattan Railway Company, and the lessee of the First Subway

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in Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn, owned by The City of New York. The New York Municipal Railway Corporation. was organized by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit interests to carry out the contracts made with the City on behalf of that company. In the Dual System Contracts, these two companies agreed tooperate for forty-nine years, under lease, certain new subway and elevated railroads to be owned by the City and constructed with funds mainly supplied by the City, with certain contributions by the companies. The companies also contracted to extend and improve their existing elevated railroads and to equip both the City-owned lines and the lines built by them. A full account of these contracts has been recorded in previous Annual Reports of this Commission to the Legislature.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company contributes $58,000,000 of the total cost of the City-owned lines of the system, while the contribution of the Brooklyn company is approximately $14,000,000, The City of New York supplying the remainder. The cost of building and equipping the system has largely increased over original estimates, as made in 1913 and years previous thereto, owing to the fact that many materials. were not purchased and some contracts were not let until after the beginning of the present era of high prices.

The cost of the equipment to be used has materially advanced and it is now believed that the total cost of the system will be, as stated above, about $400,000,000.

The work of construction of the Dual System was divided into about ninety contract sections, contracts for all of which save a very few have already been awarded. Many are 100 per cent complete. In addition to these contract sections, other contracts were let for track materials, station finish, track installation, duct line construction, structural steel, materials and works of miscellaneous character. Of the forty-one contracts awarded during the year upon the Dual System lines, only one was for general construction, two being for structural steel, eight for station finish, three for track installation, eight for track materials and nine miscellaneous in character. They reached an aggregate of $4,998,323.84, making a grand total, with the prices of contracts previously let upon the City-owned lines, of $201,338,337.18

up to December 31, 1917. The one construction contract awarded amounted to $257,164, the steel contracts to $1,456,055, the station finish contracts to $2,237,112.26, the track installation contracts to $368,861.75, the track materials contracts to $302,297.13 and the miscellaneous contracts to $376,833.70. On account of Dual Subway construction on City-owned lines, The City of New York disbursed $25,938,196.54 in 1917, while the Interborough Rapid Transit Company expended $5,055,607.50 out of its contribution for construction of City-owned lines. The New York Municipal Railway Corporation had substantially completed its quota of contribution to City-owned lines previous to 1917. The total for the City and the Interborough Company was $30,993,804.04.

The City also disbursed during 1917 approximately $133,000 for construction work on the First Subway. These expenditures are independent of the disbursements of the two companies on account of new construction and improvement of privately-owned lines and equipment for all lines. On December 31, 1917, the total of disbursements by the City and the companies upon construction of Dual System lines, plus the cost of the First Subway, amounted to $234,078,905.60.

TOTAL PAYMENTS FOR RAPID TRANSIT WORK

There are exhibited in the following tables the total payments by the City for rapid transit construction, including the purchases of real estate, from the beginning of the construction of the First Subway up to December 31, 1917, as well as the total payments for the year 1917.

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