RAILROADS: A Kiss & a Slap

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To many a harried New York commuter the Long Island Rail Road is not a railroad at all, but a form of torture. It carries more commuters annually than any other railroad in the U.S., and in its antiquated, dusty and jampacked cars, carries them very uncomfortably. This week the Long Island, which is owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., eased the lot of its longsuffering customers. The railroad put into service the first of ten semi-air conditioned, double-deck, aluminum cars with two tiers of seats. They will carry 134 passengers, 86% more than the average car, cost a total of $1,250,000.

To reach the upper or lower tier of seats, passengers will have to climb but two steps—no feat at all for commuters. Now they occasionally scramble through windows to get seats on crowded cars.

After the kiss of the new cars, the money-losing railroad slapped passengers by asking for higher fares. The railroad told the New York State Public Service Commission that it stands to lose over $3,500,000 this year unless it gets an increase in passenger rates. It asked the commission to increase commutation fares anywhere from 8% to 54%, depending on the distance.