Tramways and Other Forms of Transport

Rapid Transit Lines.

Early in the history of urban trans portation it was recognized that great advantage from the stand point of speed could be obtained by removing transit vehicles from the congestion of city streets. Experiments began as far back as 1867 when an elevated railway with cable drive was built on 9th avenue, New York city. The cable method of propulsion proved a failure, however, and permission was secured to substitute steam locomotives. Operation began on April 20, 1871. In the following year this line was extended and various connecting lines built. Following the success of the initial elevated railway in Manhattan, Brooklyn soon undertook the construction of similar lines.

Steam operation, however, had obvious disadvantages. After the practicability of the surface electric railway had been demon strated at Richmond, Frank J. Sprague proposed the electrifica tion of the elevated railways (see ELECTRIC TRACTION). The first elevated to be so equipped was the Metropolitan West Side line in Chicago in 1895. In subsequent years all of the elevated rail ways ware electrified.

Authorization for the construction of the first subway in New York was granted in 1891 but it was not until 1900 that the nu merous objections to the plan were finally overcome and bids for construction and operation were invited. Operation commenced on Oct. 27, 1904. Boston had already opened in 1897 a short subway which was first operated with street-cars and later with rapid transit trains. This was really the beginning of underground electric railway operation as a factor in urban transportation, but the Boston system has since been overshadowed by the much larger system in New York. Since 1904, the expansion of subways in New York city has been continuous and rapid. Boston has con structed some additional subways, too. So also has Philadelphia.

Construction of a subway in Chicago was started in 1938. All of these cities also have elevated railway service. For the most part the operation of all these rapid transit lines has been co ordinated with the operations of the surface railway and bus lines.

Future Prospects.

When the private automobile first came into wide-spread use in the United States, it was thought by many people to spell the doom of the street railways. Actually, it has had a much smaller effect than was popularly anticipated. The total demand for public transportation service in American cities has not been reduced materially by the.tremendous development of private transportation. Today, the number of passengers car ried is substantially greater than it was 25 years ago when private automobiles were few and far between. Two things account for this situation. In the first place, the lower cost of public trans portation influences a great many people to use it in preference to private transportation. In the second place, there is neither roadway space nor storage space enough to permit the majority of people to use private automobiles in congested districts. Un doubtedly the need for transit service will continue. To what extent this service will be rendered in the future by surface street railways, motor-buses, trolley-buses or rapid transit lines, how ever, can be determined only with the passage of time.

Federal Electric Commission, Gov't. Printing Office (192o) ; Blake and Jackson, Electric Railway Trans portation (1924) ; "A Half Century of Progress," Electric Railway Journal, Sept. 15, 1931 ; Fiftieth Anniversary Number, Transit Journal, Sept. 15, ; James Blaine Walker, Fifty Years of Rapid Transit (1918) ; Edward P. Burch, Electric Traction for Railway Trains (191I ) ; "Tomorrow's Street Car," Transit Journal, July 1936.