Railroads: Toward the 21st Century Ltd.

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Flying the Colors. Hundreds of problems remain to be settled. One immediate difficulty was deciding upon a new emblem to replace the red and gold keystone of the Pennsy and the olive, black and white oval of the Central. "Red and green together are too psychedelic," explains a Pennsy vice president in charge of paints. Last week, therefore, Saunders and Perlman inspected four freight cars that have been painted in various combinations of browns, greys, blues and greens, and now will decide which to adopt.

When "M Day" (for Merger Day) takes place—with luck on Feb. 1 and almost certainly by March 1—the first order of business will be a meeting of the 25 directors of the combined lines.

Of these, 14 will come from the Pennsy and eleven from the Central. They will elect Saunders to be chairman and chief executive officer of the Penn Central and Perlman to be president and chief administrative officer. Even at that, it will be at least eight years before the two roads are completely integrated.

Small Succor. Long before then, freight should be moving faster and more efficiently than ever. But passengers will receive small succor from the merger. The benighted commuters of the New Haven will, to be sure, benefit from new equipment made possible by an infusion of money required by the ICC as part of the Penn Central deal. But the Pennsy lost $54 million last year on passenger service, while the Central dropped $25 million. And neither line is anxious to fritter away more cash. Says Saunders ominously: "We are studying all our passenger operations and will be forced, I am sure, to initiate at an early date a far-reaching program to adjust passenger service to actual public needs."

But even as the Penn Central prepares to cut back regular passenger service, it is forging ahead with a fleet of high-speed passenger trains. The railroad has committed $45 million of its own money, in addition to $11 million in Department of Transportation funds, to lay high-speed track between New York City and Washington and to buy ultramodern trains to make the run.

Already tested, the high-speeds will cruise at up to 150 m.p.h.; they promise to cut Washington-New York running times from nearly 4 hours to 2 hours and 18 minutes. Speed, plus such amenities as direct-dial telephones, good food and common courtesy, may win back shuttle passengers whose elapsed airplane time—commuting trips to and from airports—will at least be equaled by midcity to midcity railroad runs.

The high-speeds will spread no farther than densely populated corridors, for the long-distance (more than 200 miles) passenger train is already disappearing down the track to oblivion. "The railroads," says Saunders, "simply cannot compete with jets, to say nothing of supersonics." The Pennsy's boss is equally adamant that Government should support shorter-haul commuter service with subsidies. Says he: "The U.S. Government is spending virtually nothing to assist 73 million people to get to and from their jobs, while putting up $25 billion to send three men to the moon."