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Re: (erielack) Suburban Fares Then and Now
It's interesting to see how the state take-over of commuter rail changes the
operating equations. I suppose this is true with Metro North, Long Island,
and other cities. EL, Erie, and DL&W, fought with the PUC over fares for
years. Rate increases were usually denied or kept at cost of living
increases, while the state subsidized operations at a meager fashion until
1971 when the U34s and Comet coaches came along. Then after Conrail and
their desire to get totally out of commuter operations, NJT came into its
fullness growing out of Public Service Coordinated Transport to Transport of
New Jersey to what you have today. Commuter rail is expensive to operate,
especially when the service is not used in off-peak hours. The old M&E
lines still probably come closest to breaking even because there is
relatively low competition from Interstates and limited access roads.
I was told that the old Lackawanna Boonton Line started loosing passengers
east of Mountain View as soon as S-3 was completed. That was one of the
main reason the Regional Plan Association of the 1940s and 50s promoted the
joining of the Boonton and Greenwood Lake lines.
I'm not that familiar with the internals of NJT. It may be similar to what
some people say about Amtrak. I always thought independent operation of
thru-line trains should have been a railroad operation and not an agency.
Railroads should have been granted tax credits and other incentives (mail
contracts, etc.) to keep the service. I suspect the US Mail was lobbied by
truckers in the 50s and 60s to take that commodity away from railroads.
Anyway, when the railroads ran the passenger trains they usually took pride
in this operation. SCL was issuing their own timetables even after Amtrak
took over.
When EL ran trains, they operated as part of the whole operation. When
Amtrak and then NJT, MetroNorth and others came along, they were an agency
running trains on another operator's property. That had to create a little
abrasiveness - similar to the split that took place when the courts split up
the original AT&T.
Ed Montgomery
Ed Montgomery
On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 2:39 PM, tommy meehan <tmeehan0421_@_gmail.com> wrote:
> Once state agencies REALLY got involved with
> running suburban passenger service -- after Congress
> legislated Conrail out of the business -- fares began
> to climb.
>
> In 1963 an EL Morristown-Hoboken rider paid $1.45
> one-way or $30.75 for a monthly. In 2003 the fares
> from Morristown were $6.90 for a one-way and $193.00
> for a monthly. Today they’re $10.25 one-way and
> $291.00 for a monthly.
>
> tommy meehan
>
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