Public Welfare Service Bulletin No. 3 (Third Edition) teh (ARLLOP fF ‘\ 10 : P : \ ‘ VIVERKS : N THE ELECTRIC RAILWAYS A Brief History and Account of the Method of Operation of Electric Transportation Systems For Use of School Students, English and Current Topics Classes and Debating Clubs Issued by ILLINOIS COMMITTEE on PUBLIC UTILITY INFORMATION 125 South Clark Street - . Chicago, Illinois STATISTICS SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELECTRIC RAILWAYS The Beginning: The first complete electric car system was es- tablished in 1888 at Richmond, Va. The Present: There are 44,400 miles of electric railway lines in the United States providing quick transporta- tion for the public; enough trackage to circle the earth twice. There are more than 107,000 electric cars in service. There are 18,000 miles of interurban lines con- necting small towns and cities and serving the farming communities. More than $5,000,000,000 has been invested in electric railway property, this coming from ap- proximately 550,000 investors—men, women, in- surance companies, savings banks, etc. Over 300,000 employes, this including motor- men, conductors, shop men, track men and exec- utives, are needed to keep the electric railways operating, and probably as many again are em- ployed in industries manufacturing equipment and supplies. How Riding Has Increased: In 1890, citizens of the country took an aver- age of but 32 rides per year per inhabitant. In 1902 the number was 61 rides per inhabi- tant; in 1907, it was 85; in 1912, it was 100; in 1917 it was 109 and in 1922 it was 114. This con- stant increase is largely due to the fact that workers need transportation back and forth every working day of the year and electric railways are the most economical, safe and reliable form avail- able, they operating in winter or summer, night or day, and in good or bad weather. In 1922 more than fifteen billions of riders were carried by the electric railways of the coun- try, or about eight times the population of the earth. : How Electric Railways Have Improved: As compared with railways of only a few years ago those of today have heavier, smoother track; larger, more comfortable, better-lighted, better-heated, speedier cars; maintain a more fre- quent and regular schedule and generally reach every section of the city they serve and the sur- rounding country, adding not only to conveni- ence, but to all property values. Why Fares Vary: Electric railways can be operated cheaper in some cities and localities than others. The cost of operating an electric railway varies, depending much on local conditions. The cost of operating a railway increases— When it is necessary to hold crews, cars and power equipment in reserve for “rush hour” business, as is the case in the cities or indus- trial districts. When cars are only partly filled outside of “rush hours.” When the average ride each passenger takes is long. When vehicular and other traffic is allowed to interfere with the progress of cars and other unnecessary stops are forced. When coal for generating power is not avail- able near at hand and it is necessary to haul it long distances. When routes traversed by the cars are hilly and require much electric energy to move them. When the snowfall to be handled is heavy. When there is insufficient traffic to justify a frequent service, or where they are forced to compete with other forms of unregulated and irregular transportation. Electric Railways in Illinois: Illinois is served by 90 electric railway com- panies. They have 3,840 miles of track. Stretched out on a straight line these tracks would reach from New York to San Francisco and then on out 655 miles into the Pacific Ocean. The tracks and equipment cost over $456,000,000. “2 a, 4 u Jn +7) Aang Ab) 7 Abr FO CV 570.2 TREVZ 40,3, 24.3 Oy 4 ) / “RIDING ON LIGHTNING” How the electric railway has grown from an experiment to a carrier of 15,000,000,000 riders a year in the United States alone, all within the space of three decades. Introductory: The people of America are very insistent upon getting to a place quickly, and being comfortable - while they are going. Men and women who can remember conditions forty years ago find much amusement in recalling the way people traveled in cities and towns then. It is laughable today to recall the time when the first horse cars op- erated in a community, but after the first sur- prise and joking had disappeared it was found that this mode of travel was really a great aid in getting around. But it was far from being the kind of travel the people desired. Inefficient as the early systems were, compared with the present day equipment, they marked a mighty advance, and thereupon there started a new era in city development. From that early day to this, as there have been new discoveries in electrical science, the best brains of the elec- trical field have applied these new findings to the creating in America of what is today the best electric railway transportation in the world. Not a Simple Problem: But with all this marvelous development, the problem of supplying a community with local transportation service is one of the most complex and difficult which human ingenuity has been called upon to solve. Cities have increased in population so rapidly—encouraged in the main by this very improved method of travel—that in no large city in the world has a system of local transportation been developed that has proved entirely adequate. How Electric Railways Developed: The electric railway is a recent gift of science to mankind?’ About three decades cover its life of service. Only so late as 1888 did the building of trolley lines become practical upon a commer- cial scale. Prior to that there had been fifty years of groping and experiment and disappointment; fifty years of indifference and skepticism on the part of the public and people having money to invest. But the instant electricity got a chance to prove itself, development leaped forward. Sel- dom has the world seen so remarkable a growth. When Frank J. Sprague, at Richmond, Va., in 1888, established the first complete electric car system, there were but nineteen electric lines in the world, ten of these in the United States. The combined electric trackage of the two hemi- spheres was only sixty miles. Yet, within twelve months after operation began at Richmond in 1888, fifty companies were in existence in the United States alone and forty miles of electric railway track in this country had grown to 100 miles. Within another twelve-month the num- ber of companies had quadrupled and the mileage had increased about 1,200 per cent. At the end of the third year there were 275 American com- panies and 2,250 miles of electric railway track. The fifth year saw 606 companies in existence and 7,470 miles of track in use, and at the end of the sixth year after the Richmond demonstration there were 880 companies in business and 10,860 miles of single track were in operation or under construction. Today the United States can boast of 44,400 miles of electric city, town and _interur- ban electric railway track. First Practical System: The Virginia system was not the first prac- tical electric railway installation. Successful short lines were already in operation at Cleveland and at Kansas City. But they had failed to re- ceive wide attention and did not constitute a real demonstration of what electricity could do. Much of Sprague’s success was probably due to the fact that he was the first technically trained man to enter the field and the first to gain ade- quate financial backing. Yet he had his struggles. It was only after two years of effort in New York that Sprague turned to Richmond. With Leo Daft and others he had tried to convince the metropolitan “L” officials of New York that elec- tricity was better than steam. He proposed the electrification of the various elevated railway lines of New York in 1885 and was given a chance to experiment on the Thirty-fourth street branch in 1886, but nothing further was done in New York. Sprague then formed the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Co. and secured contracts for construction of lines at Richmond, Va., and at St. Joseph, Mo. The Richmond system came _ into operation in February, 1888, with forty motor cars—against the fifty cars that all other Amer- ican traction lines combined could boast. The Sprague cars at first. operated with a sliding con- tract on an overhead wire, but later adopted the trolley wheel. The motor used was really the parent of the electric railway motor of today. Achievement Was Remarkable: In judging the significance to mankind of the Richmond achievement, the reader should bear in mind two facts: that the electric railway has made the large city possible and that, in the coun- try, it has opened up millions of acres that would otherwise have been beyond the reach of home owners. In the city, in fact, the average citizen can thank the electric car alone for his right to own a home. Without rapid transit the city dwellers would have to cling, like a swarm of bees, close round the center of employment. Rentals would be at unheard of levels and real estate values so high that only the wealthy could own and build. Towering tenements would shut out sunshine and health. Only by reason of rapid transit, as we know it today, can the city spread out and make possible miles of inexpensive and desirable homesites. Interurban Worked Wonders: In the country, in the same way, the interurban line, through its rapid, cheap and frequent sery- ice, has done wonders in bringing, about a better distribution of the population. Small town resi- dents have been enabled to move out to the farms, new villages have grown up and suburban acreage property and suburban residential cen- ters have been brought close to the city worker. Yet this service has become a fact almost with- out the people being aware of its progress. From the day when the first electric motor crept along the rails to the present, the public has given a hundred-fold more thought to transient develop- ments than to this great revolutionary develop- ment. Today the people accept electric railway service as a matter of course. Few pause to think what the life of the nation would be without the electric car. ? In 1835 the electric transportation system of the world consisted of a big idea in the head of one country blacksmith, and a small model car in his hands. Today, in the United States alone, 300,000 men and women are required to operate the street cars and interurbans. These electric lines of the United States have cost $5,000,000,000 and each year carry almost 15,000,000,000 per- sons, or about eight times the total population of the earth. If all of the passengers wished to ride at the same time, 1,648,515 cars would have to be coupled together to accommodate them. Tragedies in Early History: The early history of electric transportation abounds in tragedies of futile and unrewarded effort. Beginning with no technical knowledge -—the best universities of the world could have given them none—the pioneers in the field groped forward. A life of such labor, all too often, brought no results. But here and there a mite of knowledge was added to the world’s store. Two among many such workers may be named. They were Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vt., and George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Mich. To Davenport, the country blacksmith already men- tioned, America owes the honor of having origin- ated electric traction. Davenport was poor and uneducated, but in six years of struggle he made a hundred electric motors and at last saw his model roll forward on its circular track. He ex- hibited a small car at Springfield, Mass., and later at Boston. But his principle was wrong and, © beyond giving the world an idea, his work was futile. George F. Green was likewise a mechanic. He began work in 1875 but only gained tardy recog- nition from congress in 1891. Too poor to buy essential parts of the machines he would have built, or to hire a patent attorney, he struggled on and added valuable contributions to scientific knowledge. The Early Inventors: Electric traction, on its mechanical side, has seen two periods of development. The first, or experimental period, brought tip dead against the- stone wall of wrong methods. A second period followed in which, profiting by the lessons learned, the industry achieved final technical suc- cess. The first period began, of course, when Fara- day, in 1821, discovered that electricity could be used to produce mechanical motion. Eleven years later Henry discovered the first motor and three years after that Davenport showed the world that electricity could be made to drive a car along the rails. Next came Robert Davidson of Aberdeen, a Scotchman, and took from America the honor of producing the first electric car to run on a stand- ard gauge track. This was in 1838, only three years after Davenport’s work became known. The car made several successful runs over a steam road. Dynamo Made Success Possible: As early as 1841 the idea of using rails as cur- rent conductors was patented. In 1855 an En- glishman, in trying to bring about telegraphic communication with moving trains, gave us in its first form what is today the trolley wire and pole. In the same year, in France, both the insulated trolley and the central station current supply were suggested. In 1861 Pacinnoti, in Europe, invented the reversible continuous current dyna- mo upon which all modern generators and mo- tors are founded. It was the invention of the dynamo that brought an end to the first period and made final success possible. The twenty-six long years of effort between Davenport and Pacinnoti had been wasted. They in themselves constitute one of the tragedies of industry. Prior to the dyna- mo the primary battery system used was not commercially practical. No progress could be made. Having now, by 1861, all the underlying princi- ples of electric traction, it seems odd to the reader of today that so many years had to pass before commercial results were obtained. For it was 1879 before the first practical electric line was operated, and, as said heretofore, 1888 had come before the construction of electric roads on a commercial scale became possible. But the length of time elapsed is the measure of the dif- ficulty of the problem. It was in Germany, not America, that the first practical line was operated. In the late ’70’s Sie- mens, a German, and Edison and Stephen D. Field, Americans, filed claims for patents within three months of one another. Field, having been the first to enter preliminary papers, was given the honor. But Field did not get his line into operation before 1880, whereas the German began carrying passengers at the Berlin exposition in 1879. Siemens’ motor could haul eighteen per- sons in three small trailers along a one-third mile track at the rate of nearly eight miles an hour. He used the third rail method. The first line operated outside an exhibition ground was also in Germany. This was at Lich- terfelde, near Berlin, in 1881. It was one and a half miles long and its motor could carry thirty- six passengers at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The line is still in existence. It was in the same year, also, that between Charlottenburg and Spandau, the first effort was made to offer com- petition to the street car horse. The first exhibitions of electric traction in the American western states were by Charles J. Van Depoele, a Belgian sculptor and inventor, who is said to have been the first to actually draw ctr- rent from an overhead wire, and by Edison and Field, who operated a line in the gallery of the American Railway exposition in 1882 and 1883. Van Depoele made experimental installations in a number of western towns. First American Line: It was in 1884, however, that the first practical electric line in America began business. This was in Cleveland. A two-mile track was oper- ated there with an underground trolley sliding in a slotted wooden box. It was there that the street car horse, had he been able to read, would have first noted the writing on the wall. In Kansas City in 1884 a line was built, the projector of which has the right to share with Sprague the honor of having introduced modern standard practice. His name was J. Henry. His was the second practical installation’ in the United States. Henry’s line is said to have given us the trolley rope and the word “trolley.” This was a corruption of “troller,” the little four- wheeled carriage that ran on the wire and trans- mitted the current, through a flexible cable, to the car. Before the introduction of the trolley rope it was necessary to have a small boy ride on top of each car. Henry overcame great ob- stacles in bringing his enterprise to success. He had to use horseshoe nails in bonding the rails and copper wire for the trolley supply was then to be had only in sixty foot lengths. The rapid introduction of the interurban, be- ginning in 1894, gave the nation a new method of travel. Indianapolis was the first “trolley me- tropolis.” Indiana today has 2,323 miles of elec- tric railway. Illinois has 3,840 miles, of which, in round numbers, 1,200 are in Chicago. Ohio has 3,999. Michigan has 1,526 miles, Wisconsin 849 miles, and Iowa 784 miles. The middle west leads in this development. While the great service of the electric roads has been in the transportation of passengers it should not be forgotten that they also carry freight. Many are actively competing with steam roads. In the future it is expected, also, that they will play a larger part in the express and mail service. So efficient has electric operation proved, that a number of steam railroads have adopted it for use in city terminals and on mountain divisions. The electrification at New York is the best ex- ample of the first, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul’s Puget Sound line of the second. Chicago’s Transportation History: The Chicago traction system is a typical illus- tration of urban development. In 1860, the Chi- cago citizen could get but one mile’s ride for his fare. In 1922 he could ride thirty-three miles. Chicago’s first transportation enterprise was an omnibus line. This was in 1853. The first horse car line, on State street between Randolph and Twelfth, began operation in 1859. The first cable line, on State south to Thirty-ninth, ran its initial train in 1882. The first electric line be- gan business in 1890, three years before the last of the cable lines was built. The first Chicago trolley had to be content with a suburban field. It began at Ninety-fifth Street and Stony Island Avenue and ran to South Chicago. Within four years of its opening, how- ever, it had driven every horse car out of the city. The cable lines succumbed in 1906. Of the present elevated system the South Side line, to Thirty-ninth street, was the pioneer. It began operation in 1892 with steam locomotives. The first “L” to start with electric motors was the Metropolitan of Chicago in 1895. The electric traction system of the United States is the product of private enterprise and initiative such as has developed all of American business. Of the 44,400 miles of trackage only about 1 per cent is owned by cities. Service over the remaining portion is provided by private companies. How the Electric Car is Propelled: Let us apply the X-Ray, so to speak, to a mod- ern electric car and see how “it works.” Ii you have passed by the car barns early in the morning you have noticed the motormen taking out their cars to start the busy day; or you may have passed by the car barns late in the afternoon and have noticed extra crews get- ting the cars ready for the evening “rush hours.” Tracks in the street are a familiar sight; you call to mind long rows of poles on either side from which is suspended, over the track, a shin- ing copper wire. When the cars pass, you fre- quently see sparks and flashes where the trolley wheel (See T. W. in illustration) rolls along the wire. You may even notice sparks on the track under the car wheels. In stormy weather, you may have noticed, simultaneously, violent blue and yellow flashes at the trolley wheel and on the track under the car wheels, giving evidence of the electrical energy passing from the wire down the trolley pole to the electric motors which make the car wheels revolve. You naturally wonder what this energy looks like, how it acts and where it goes. No one ever saw the electric current, but an inventor, named Michael Faraday, noticed that when current was forced through a wire it would move a neighbor- ing magnet sideways; and that when the posi- tion of the magnet was changed to the other side of the wire the movement of the magnet was in the opposite direction. The Motors: Faraday arranged the magnet so that it moved around and around about a shaft; then, instead of one wire and one magnet, he added many more about the shaft, and so produced a rotating motor. This is the electric motor that turns the wheels of a street car,—a motor, which, though very intricate, is so compact that it can be built into the truck of the car. (See M. in illustration.) The Path ot the Current: Where does the current go? You have seen the sparks under the car wheels on the track, and you probably have already guessed, cor- rectly, that the current passes down the trolley pole (T. P. in illustration) through the car, the motors and wheels into the rails and the ground, finding its way through the ground (which is also a conductor of electricity) back to a copper plate buried in*the ground at the power house and connected to the generator, thus making a complete loop, or circuit, for we have found that a complete circuit must be provided or the cur- rent cannot be forced to flow at all. The car com- pletes the circuit from trolley wire to rail. You may wonder why no shock is received when you step on the rail carrying current back to the power house. Were you tall enough to touch the trolley wire at that time you would complete the circuit in the same manner as the car does, thus furnishing a path to the rail for the current, from which a shock would be received. Workmen are careful, while working on charged wires, that their bodies do not form a path to the ground for the current. Protective devices, such as insulated platforms, rubber gloves, etc., interrupt the circuit through which the current would otherwise be carried. A bird alighting on a charged wire does not receive a shock because it is in contact with only one side of the circuit. The Controller and the Starting Resistance: This brings us to the explanation of the motor- man’s controller (C. in illustration), which is simply a device for opening the circuit (break- ing the flow of electricity), to stop the car, or closing it (completing the circuit), to start the car. FReeturn Circuit —* fo Power House HOW A MODERN ELECTRIC STREET CAR OPERATES You have noticed when the motorman starts his car that he turns the handle of his controller a “notch” at a time as the car speeds up. If he did otherwise, the immense power available from the trolley wire would cause the motor to spin the car wheels, like a steam locomotive whose engineer has opened the steam throttle too wide. The first slight turn, or notch, of the controller completes the electric circuit, allowing the cur- rent to flow and start the motor, but, before the current enters the motor it is led through a num- ber of thin iron grids (See R. G. in illustration), like lattice work, whose long path offers a large resistance to its passage and keeps it small in amount. The next slight turn of the controller shuts or cuts out some of this resistance, shorten- ing the resistance path and therefore letting more current flow through the motor, and so on, with the next notch, until all of the resistance is “shunted” or cut out of the circuit, and the full pressure of the electric current is available to make the car run at full speed. The Air Brake: Did you ever notice a steam locomotive pant- ing like a runner just after a race? You may be surprised to learn that the “pants” in this case are not from the run but from the stop. When the engineer of the Twentieth Century Limited, running at full speed, turns his air brake handle into the position called “Emergency,” some 96,000 horse-power are instantly loosed by the air brakes in stopping the wheels. The com- pressed air used to apply the immense braking force is automatically replenished by the air pump on the locomotive, and it is this air pump that puffs or pants after a stop. The air brake also necessary for the heavier types of electric cars is an identical apparatus, and equally as efficient. This air pump (A. P. in illustration) is driven by a small electric motor; doubtless you have heard it humming away after a stop or two, storing compressed air in reser- voirs, available for instant use. (A. R. in illustra- tion). The brake valve handle which the motor- man turns with one hand, is probably as fa- miliar to you as the controller handle which he turns with the other hand. The valve thus op- erated allows the air under high pressure to flow from the reservoir (A. R. in illustration), to the “brake cylinder.” From this point the operation is simple; the brake cylinder is a cylinder perhaps 8 inches to 14 inches in diameter. The air is ad- mitted rapidly at one end through perhaps a l-inch pipe, and drives slowly before it a “pis- ton.” If the pressure in the l-inch pipe is 70 pounds, the pressure against the piston (in the case of the 14-inch piston) is multiplied 196 times to 14,000 pounds, and it is this immense force, further multiplied perhaps 10 times by lev- ers, which presses the iron brake shoes against the wheels and brings the car to a sudden stop. Sounds involved, doesn’t it? A photograph of the bottom of a car would present to view an array of apparatus, complex, it is true, but neces- sary to make the operation of the car simple and safe, and each piece of the apparatus can be explained as simply as the motor or controller or the air brakes. Amount of Power Used: To start an ordinary car requires 15,000 times as much electrical energy as that which brightens the filament of the ordinary incandescent lamp, or drives the ordinary fan motor. If the car is also heated by electricity the en- ergy used for that purpose is from 25 per cent to 50 per cent as much as is used by the motors to propel the car. Third Rail System: Another method of carrying current to the electric car, is known as the “third rail system.” Instead of an overhead trolley there is a third rail on which no wheels pass but a contact brush draws the electric current from the third rail into the car to the controller in the same manner as the trolley wheel does in the trolley wire system. Remarkable Efficiency of Electric Railway Motors: The electric railway motor is vastly more effi- cient than the finest steam plant or gasoline en- gine; in fact the electric motor wastes only some 25 per cent of the energy fed to it, using 75 per cent in useful work turning the car wheels. The best steam turbine or gasoline engine wastes 75 per cent of the total heat energy fed to it and can use only 25 per cent. How an Electric Railway is Operated: Team work, the same kind of team work learned on the football or baseball team, takes the foremost place in the operation of an elec- tric railway. The fact that a man _ holding the lowest position in the employ of one of the privately operated companies can rise to be president of the road or hold others of the highest positions, results in these employes striv- ing hard. Efficiency and hard work count on the electric lines, for unless an employe is ca- pable no influence or “pull” will help him. This reward for his efforts and the fascination attend- ing the furnishing of the public with so import- ant a service perhaps accounts for the saying “Once a railway man, always a railway man.” The dispatcher is the quarterback of the trans- portation team. He appoints the crews each to their task (the railway man even uses signals) and sees that they take the cars forward at the best time to do the most good. The American people are a riding people and as you know serv- ice is mostly needed in the morning and at night, during what are called by railway men the “rush hours.” (See “car service diagram for typical] city electric railway.) No two consecutive days seem to be alike. It is difficult to foresee delays and keep the cars on their schedule, but the dispatcher must do everything possible to maintain a satisfactory schedule with the tracks and cars that are pro- vided by the money risked by investors in the enterprise. Maintaining the Road in Operating Condition: The maintenance forces, consisting of the track men, the shop men, inspectors, electricians and others, are the “trainers” of the railway team. It is their work to keep the system in as perfect working order as circumstances will permit. For this purpose there is an endless stream of sup- plies coming in and leaving the storerooms. The storekeeper of one of the large electric roads in Illinois says that he has to keep in stock 15,000 different kinds of articles for the main- tenance of the property, varying from a track spike to a complete railway motor. Rolling stock (as the cars are called), track, trolley wire and electrical equipment, are sub- ject to particularly heavy wear and tear and the pole lines, buildings, bridges, etc., representing a considerable investment, also require a large ag- gregate of painting and repairs. The painting of cars costs between $50 and $100 per car every year, if the original wood and steel is to be pre- served. The mere inspection of cars, in order to insure the safety and reliability of all parts, may cost $300 per car each year under favorable cir- cumstances. The renewal of worn out brake shoes, which press down upon and stop the wheels, is often the largest single item of expense on a small property. What the Cars Cost: The modern pay-as-you-enter street car or in- terurban car does not represent so much money, per passenger carried, as a costly limousine, be- cause the limousine is designed to create luxury for a small number of persons, while the street car is designed to carry a large number of per- sons comfortably and safely. Nevertheless the trolley car with its steel construction, its intricate machinery and carefully fitted parts, represents quite a snug sum of money. They cost from $8,000 to $18,000, which is twice or even three times that of five years ago. Modern interurban cars cost about $25,000 each. In addition to the city electric railway lines, there are electric interurban systems traversing the state, linking up the cities with smaller com- munities and the family districts. These have proven of great benefit to the state, providing transportation for many communities not fully served by the railroads, developing cities and towns along their tracks, and giving frequent and efficient service. These interurban lines em- ploy larger cars than the city lines and do both a passenger and freight business. In some lo- calities they haul the mail. On a number of lines the same conveniences exist as on the railroads, such as dining, sleeping and parlor cars. An innovation of importance in the past few years in cities and towns has been the “safety car.” This is operated by a single employe, who acts both as a motorman and conductor. This car is smaller than the “two-man” type of car, has four wheels and is equipped with elaborate safety devices. It was originated when the high costs of operation of the heavier and larger car, necessitating two men for operation, caused elec- tric railway experts to investigate how expenses could be reduced and yet a good and efficient service for the public be maintained. Safety First: Every street railway system, as you know, has as its very first aim, the safety of its passengers. Every company in fact, has its “Safety First” organization, which it holds responsible for its safety measures. How the electric railways have succeeded is shown by the record of one large company which in a period of over twelve years has carried two billion passengers without a fatal accident. To accomplish a record like this requires the active co-operation of every employe, foreman, and “head of department” in the work of doing away with dangerous conditions and the setting up of safety regulations as well as help from city authorities, car riders, automobilists, and, in fact, all of the public. Problems of the Street Railway: To anyone who has worked in the different departments of an electric railway it is a source of pride to consider how the expense of upkeep and general operation (including taxes) per mile can be kept anywhere near equal to the passen- ger fares collected per mile, and leave a balance to pay the interest on the money invested in the enterprise. Certain it is that the young people now going to school will soon be interested, directly or indirectly, in these prob- lems of the present day. A great many will take their place in the electric railway industry, bringing to bear their technical knowledge in the development of better transportation, and more valuable still, their knowledge of the value of team work and fair play. Many others will also invest part of their savings in electric railways, either directly or through the banks and insur- ance companies and trust companies with whom they deposit their savings. How Electric Railways are Supervised: Being a convenience designed for all of the people, bordering close to an absolute necessity (no one wanting to go back to the days of the ox cart or horse and buggy as a method of ordi- nary travel), it was found necessary as the elec- tric railway industry grew, to have it controlled by some form of government regulation. In most states this has taken the form of regulation by state commissions, which act much as the Fed- eral Interstate Commerce Commission does in regulating the railroads. These commissions have several fixed rules to abide by which may be summarized as follows: 1—See to it that the public is given adequate and unbroken service at a just rate of fare. 2— Protect the investment that has been made by the thousands of persons who have loaned the money that makes possible the furnishing of service. 3—Correct situations that hinder con- tinuous development and improvement of lines and equipment, as such untoward conditions would be against the public good. 4—Judge all matters coming before them impartially and without prejudice, for if either the companies or the public are dissatisfied with a decision, the courts may be asked to review it. Where the Passenger’s Fare Goes: When you hand a street car conductor your fare, where does it go? How does the company have to divide up your money in order to meet the expense of giving you the ride? As has been previously explained it takes a small army of persons, all working at some defin- ite task, to make possible your ride. Each per- son in this army must be paid a wage and should obtain his just share of the fare you pay. The chart (The Electric Railway Dollar), takes a dollar paid in by car riders and divides it in the manner it should go if all in that army were be- ing paid their wages and the expenses of the road were being fully met. It was the failure of the roads to earn sufficient money during the war and immediately afterwards, experts say, to pay all of these wages and expenses, as outlinedinthis chart, which led to the serious financial trouble affecting the entire electric railway industry of the nation. This, they say, was due to the roads charging a fixed fare, generally 5 cents, and not being able to fix the prices they have to pay for money loaned to them and for wages, fuel, equip- ment and the many other expenses. This situa- tion became so serious that in 460 cities of the country it was found necessary to increase the fares but in many cases this was done too late and some electric lines went entirely out of busi- ness, leaving the people of these communities without transportation. This worked a great THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY DOLLAR aCe AY Mowe WOULD GOTO THE INVESTOR FOR wae) “a SEAS Oo AMOUNT PHID FOR LABOR, CDS EEL Me Ma ad sch RR ORE H/S MONEY. THERE MUST BEINVESTEO IN TRACKS, CARS AND OTHER EQUIP- «6 —\CE/VED IN A YEARS a” 2 \ TIME 3 THEREFORE THE Yo NPSOVE 37 CENTS OULD oa es AY LOC LAE Sea How Experts Say a Dollar in Fares Would Be Divided by an Average Properous and Growing Company Able to Give Good Service and Paying Ail Necessary Wages and Expenses, . hardship upon all sther business and upon the public. The building of lines, extending of tracks, to neighborhoods that needed car service and the buying of cars and other equipment, was for a considerable time almost entirely stopped. It was one of the most difficult situations, probably, that any American industry has ever faced, but through tremendous effort it is being overcome. The chart prepared by experts indicates how an ordinary company would divide a dollar re- ceived in fares were it prosperous and growing and fully able to pay all of the wages and ex- penses. It shows that the dollar is divided into three big divisions, which are as follows: 1—WAGES TO EMPLOYES (34 cents of each dollar): This represents the number of cents of each dollar that would be paid as wages to motormen, conductors, track men, shop men, office employes, etc. 2—INTEREST TO INVESTORS (37 cents, or 74 cents per year for each dollar the road costs):—This is the number of cents that would be taken from each dollar to pay the wages, or interest, on the great sum of money the company has to spend to build the tracks and roadbed, put in trolley wires, buy street cars, build car barns and power plants. As the car company owners, who are known as the stockholders, must invest $5 in property for each $1 they can expect in a year in fares, it can be readily seen that the cost of build- ing an electric railway property is tremendous and that if a fair wage in the shape of inter- est is not paid, the money cannot be obtained but would go into other businesses where a fair rate of interest, or profit, would be paid. 3—GENERAL EXPENSES (29 cents) :— This includes such items as depreciation, taxes, rentals, miscellaneous expenses, injuries and damages, materials and supplies and power. We will take them up in order and see what they mean. (a) Depreciation:—There is constantly wear and tear on tracks, cars and plants and there must be constantly repairs, as well as entire replacement of parts. If this were not carefully attended to the cars, machinery and tracks would soon be merely junk. (b) Taxes:—The street railways are heavy taxpayers, particularly so when the amount they take in as fares is considered in proportion to the great sums they must invest in property. From the fare of every car rider a certain amount must be taken to be turned over to the city, county, state and federal governments as the share of taxes all industry of a commun- ity must pay. This money is used, in the case of towns and cities, in making streets, laying sewers, building sidewalks, maintaining a po- lice force and paying the salaries of men elected to office, such as the mayor, city attor- ney, aldermen, etc. 10 (c) Rentals :—This item includes rents the average company must pay for tracks, lands and other facilities not directly owned. (d) Miscellaneous expenses:—T his in- cludes items of operation such as office ex- penses, etc. (e)—Injuries and damages:—In spite of “safety first” efforts, street cars will bump into, or be bumped into, by automobiles, wagons, etc. There are sometimes other accidents, this being an unavoidable result of the neces- sity that in furnishing transportation the tracks must run through streets largely used, so as to make them immediately available to the greatest number of people. ({) Materials and supplies:—The electric railways are heavy buyers at all times. This money goes for the hundreds of things needed to keep the tracks in good condition and the cars moving. (g)—Power :—This is the money spent for electricity, either through developing it at a power plant owned by the railway or buying it from an electric company. It is what the companies pay to “make the cars go.” The Rush Hour Problem: The chart headed “Car Service Diagram for Typical City Electric Railway,” illustrates one of the most difficult problems that the electric railway companies have to face. That is the “rush hour” problem, involving the few hours of the morning or late afternoon when people are either rushing, as a body, to get to work, or in the same fashion, to get home. If there were a steady flow of car riders over the “waking” period of each 24 hours, the trans- portation problem would not be difficult. But that is not so. The result is the companies must purchase large numbers of cars and other equip- ment as well as have large forces of employes, who can be used only these “rush hours” of the day, tying up great sums of money in an invest- ment that is idle and lying in the car barns 20 out of each 24 hours of the day. As an illustration of this big problem the chart represents an actual city company compelled to use a maximum of 450 cars in its “rush hours” and applies particularly to all industrial com- munities. The number of cars actually necessary to handle traffic at various given hours during the day is indicated, this showing the two “peaks” or rush periods. The chart shows that at 5 a. m. but 30 cars are sufficient. At 6 a.m. people are starting to work and 120 cars must be on the lines; by 7 a. m. there is a great rush on and 390 cars are needed; at 7:30 a. m. the “peak” is reached and 450 cars must be in operation. But this rush only lasts less than a bare hour, but this extra equipment must be there during that time. By 9 a. m. 210 cars will haul all passengers wanting transporta- tion and by 10 a. m. 120 cars are sufficient. From 10 a. m. until about 4 p. m—6 hours— only 120 cars are needed, as compared with 450 cars during the “rush hour,” and the rest are idle. About 4 p. m. the shoppers start home and again the idle cars must come out of the barns with their crews. By 5 p. m. 360 cars are needed and by 5:30 p. m. the number must be 435 cars. These cars are needed only about half an hour, for by 6 p. m. the demand has been reduced to 420 cars and by 7 p. m., when the majority are home at the evening meal, it is only 180. By 8 p. m. the demand has dropped to 120 and by 9 p. m. to but 90 cars. From that time on until 5 a. m. the next morning it drops gradually from 90 to 30 cars. Efforts to bring about an even traffic on street railway lines, such as would “iron out” these two — “rush hour peaks” have been unsuccessful, inas- much as the public demands transportation when it wants it, and not as the companies would like to give it. In the typical case cited by this chart it is shown that the riding demand on the part of the public results in 80 cars out of each 100 being used less than four hours a day. The company has to pay just as much for these cars as it does for those that “work” and earn 24 hours a day. eS a factory in which 100 men are employed, 80 of whom work and produce less than four hours a day, but all of whom demand wages for a full day’s labor that they do not perform, and you have a similar situation to that involving this idle equipment problem of the electric railways. Care Seevice DisgRatt For V¥PICAL CITY ElecrRIC Rallway MLUSTRATING THE LARGE INCREASE (N CARS NECESIARY JO CARE FOR RUSH Hove TRAFFIC 440 : ‘S) $ iN Q S > = DAC a a a 2 SS VIS VY) ALLL} A) LCN OVA OOOO NOD THOSE. | I A OOO OIE : LZUBUOAULAOaaa "el CALA A ALL A LAINE mone TIME OF DAY. Siovemat Uses of This Bulletin: pease: Suggested topics for formal or in- formal debating: 1—Resolved: That the Aeroplane will replace the Steam Railway. 2—Resolved: That aside from long distances, Electric Car Travel is Preferable to Steam Travel. Rhetoric, Classes: 1—Make a three minute review of this Bulletin. 2—The Value of Street Car Service to this Community. 3—How does electricity propel a street car? 4—The street car and retail trade. 5—The value of the Interurban system. 6—How the Local Car System Operates. 7—The Street Car and City Expansion. Oral English, and Current Topics ; Ps % at a ‘ ee ks "es pits he EER FSS ee eee ON Be | aonb, eet anwipr FON ans t 2 4 at "| 17 ne : “ne A Be ie er rae 70 + F ; siting bari ee fy rh ta rie leotisit f bagi *) are txete. Stiri) FIBSA For Additional Bulletins Please Address: Illinois Committee on Public Utility. x 125 South Clark Street oo: 2) ne sae _ zi be wed 4) es oe -~