The New York Rapid-transit Subway

50 PARSONS ON NEW YORK RAPID-TRANSIT SUBWAY. [Minutes of falls on the express trains, whose cars are often crowded to the utmost limit while the local trains contain empty seats. The station of heaviest traffic is that at Brooklyn Bridge, which during the past year received 21,326,672 fares, and discharged presumably an equal number of passengers. Next in importance was Grand Central, with 10,391,676, and then 14th Street, both being express stations, with 8,688,025. As indicating the importance of express stations, even in residential districts, the 96th Street station took in 3,421,044 passengers, while the stations immediately south and north had 1,201,300 and 2,582,514 respectively. The actual tributary popu- lation does not differ materially in the three localities. Trains are run continuously during the 24 hours. The gross receipts from the last year’s operation amounted to $8,687,952-60, including an income of $368,484-36 from miscel- laneous sources; the total expenditure was $3,883,369'68, leaving $4,804,582 • 92 to pay the interest-rental to the City and a satisfactory dividend on the Company’s stock issued for equipment and other expenditure. The cost of operation per passenger was 2^ cents. The distribution of the total cost is about as follows: Per Cent. Maintenance of way and structures......................13 „„equipment and plant......................21 A ,. e 1 94 Operation of power-plant...............................41 „„trains and stations......................35 General and miscellaneous..................... 7 Conclusion. Experience in the construction and operation of the New York Subway points to the following conclusions :— (1) The cost of an underground railway is at best high, and in order that it may not become prohibitive, constructors must be given as much assistance as possible in the way of facilities, and the enterprise must not be burdened by heavy extraneous expenditure through the acquisition of so-called vested rights. (2) That while shallow construction involves the difficulty and expense of readjusting all sub-surface structures, the total cost does not exceed the cost of deep-tunnel construction, especially when the capitalized cost of maintaining a lift-service at the stations is considered. (3) Shallow construction, with the more convenient and quicker access to stations, undoubtedly attracts traffic. (4) To the express service much if not all of the financial success is due. A two-track railway would have cost much less, but