Order No. 178. (See Order No. 84, page 30 herein.) Order No. 179. (See Order No. 148, page 41 herein.) Steam Railroads.- Establishing a uniform system of accounts. OPINIONS AND REPORTS OF 1907 NOT HERETOFORE PUBLISHED. Annual Budget, Public Service Commisson for the First District. [The Public Service Commission, being a State board, need not submit a present budget to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The unexpended balance appropriated for the rapid transit board may be expended by the Commission.] Report of the Committee on Budget and Method of Obtaining Funds for Expenses of Commission and Salaries other than those of the Commission, its Counsel and Secretary. Messrs. Bassett, Whitney and Hollmann have compared the provisions of the Rapid Transit Act touching the subjects referred to this committee, and the Public Service Law, and find that in regard to this subject the provisions are substantially identical. On this account your committee have inferred that the method heretofore employed by the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners in this regard will be presumably correct to be adopted by the present Commission, and it is likely that the Board of Estimate will prefer this method of caring for this subject. The requests for estimates for budget heretofore sent out by the Board of Estimate apply to city departments, bureaus and boards. As ours is a State board with a separate provision for its expenses, this request does not relate to us. The method followed by the Rapid Transit Board has been : First In the latter part of each year it has made up, as nearly as possible, an estimate of its needs for expenses the following year. This was done in order to facilitate the work for the Finance Department, so that it might not have to pass on a large number of small requisitions. Last year this requisition was made December 27th, and was for the sum of $826,500. Of this amount the Board of Estimate assented to $742,500, leaving about $84,000 to be assented to later, if necessary, on account of the planning and letting of new work. Second For the salaries of the Rapid Transit Commissioners an application was made each year to the Appellate Division of the First District. The salaries of the new commissioners, their counsel and secretary are paid by the State Treasurer. Third If the requisitions of the Rapid Transit Board for expenses were not complied with, they had the right to place the requisitions before the Appellate Division, whose decision would be final. We understand, however, that this was never done. To come now to the method that we should employ to obtain funds for payment of expenses and salaries other than those of the Commission, counsel and secretary: First There is no necessity of making up a present budget and submitting it to the Board of Estimate. Second We may expend the unexpended balance for any proper purposes of our Commission, and during the remainder of this year, if this fund is not sufficient, we may make a requisition for a further sum. Third- In the month of December we should serve upon the Board of Estimate and Apportionment a statement of requisition which will approximately cover our needs for the year 1908. This will not prevent our making further requisitions in the year 1908, if they become necessary. Fourth In case the Board of Estimate does not comply with this request and honor this requisition, it will be our duty to make our request to the Appellate Division, whose determination will be final. July 5, 1907. See footnote, page 9. (Signed) EDWARD M. BASSETT, WM. MCCARROLL Brooklyn Bridge.- Extent of jurisdiction of commission over. [The Commission has jurisdiction only over the service afforded by the operating companies on Brooklyn Bridge and not over the structure itself.] At the time the Commission was created there was great congestion during rush hours at Brooklyn Bridge and a committee upon the subject was appointed, which presented the following opinion: COMMISSIONER BASSETT :— OPINION OF COMMISSION. Your committee on the Brooklyn Bridge, after a careful consideration and study of existing conditions, makes this preliminary report, for the purpose of setting forth the remedies that are being provided to lessen present congestion. It should, from the outset, be understood that our jurisdiction extends only to the service afforded the public by the operating companies, and not to the structure itself. The extreme congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge is the result of many years growth. It arises from the fact that this bridge is to-day substantially the only avenue between the two greatest boroughs of the city, and when it is considered that eight elevated lines in Brooklyn are focused into the one elevated bridge track and twice as many Brooklyn surface lines are focused into one trolley track, it can be readily seen that some congestion is inevitable until the traffic can be decreased. Human ingenuity cannot, in the space of a few months, bring relief to a situation, the fundamental cause of which is that too many lines of transit and too great a number of people are compelled to use it. The only entire cure for the Brooklyn bridge crush is to deflect to other river crossings part of the people that are now compelled to use this bridge. While it is likely that various devices would mitigate the present bridge crush, and some of these devices might well have been put in operation during the past four or five years to accomplish this result, the fact remains that at the present time and for the last nine months, the city has been pursuing a definite policy of bridge relief, that will soon produce increasing benefits, and it would not be wise to insist on the adoption of minor alleviations that would require a large expendi ture of time and money to install and which would run counter to the plans which the city authorities have decided upon. The definite plan decided upon by the city is that there shall be through trains in rush hours, so that the extra change at the Brooklyn terminal shall stop. This through service and the better sorting of passengers at the Manhattan terminal will later be facilitated by the construction of the large station to be erected on the site of the Staats-Zeitung building, where the land is now being cleared for this purpose. We will proceed to enumerate the various steps of relief now in preparation : 1. Under the orders of this board, the equipment of the various operating companies is being improved, to avoid break-downs and minor delays. 2. New types of surface cars with double size platforms for quick loading are being designed. 3. Increased policing, to prevent disorder, and increased traffic regulation on the roadways, to prevent delays to surface cars. This feature is under the charge of the Bridge and Police Departments. 4. The elevated terminal at the Manhattan end of the bridge is now being lengthened so that six-car trains can be placed in the pockets and entered more conveniently than now in the evening rush hours. It is expected by the Bridge Department that, on the completion of this work in a short time, the change of cars at the Brooklyn end of the bridge, which has been a source of such annoyance and delays for many years, will cease. 5. Plans for rearrangement of the Brooklyn terminals are being prepared so that on the completion of the last mentioned improvements additional empty trains can start in Brooklyn. 6. The Sands street viaduct, now fully approved and about to begin construction, will carry the surface cars above Sands street and prevent constant delays from grade crossings at that point. * See footnote, page 9. 7. The completion of the Battery tunnel within the next few months will deflect a considerable part of the travel from the Brooklyn bridge. This will constitute the first fundamental remedy for the bridge congestion, inasmuch as it will be the first provision of an alternative method of crossing the East river by rapid transit. 8. The connection of the Broadway, Brooklyn, elevated road with the Williamsburg Bridge, so that through trains may be run to the station under Delancey street. The completion of this connection and the Delancey street station, both of which are now under construction, will attract part of the Williamsburg and Ridgewood travel to come to Manhattan by that bridge instead of by the Brooklyn Bridge, as at present. 9. The completion of the Centre street subway leading from the Williamsburg Bridge to the City Hall, Manhattan, now under construction, and expected to be completed in about two and one-half years, will probably afford the greatest relief to the Brooklyn Bridge of any single improvement now under contract, except the Manhattan Bridge. It will deflect a large portion of the Brooklyn Bridge travel to the Williamsburg Bridge, as the new route will afford the more direct line for Williamsburg, Ridgewood, East New York, Brownsville, Woodhaven and Jamaica. 10. The completion of the Manhattan Bridge, now in course of construction, and which is expected to be finished soon after the Centre street subway, will afford still more substantial relief to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge will have four sets of tracks for trains, instead of one set, as on the Brooklyn Bridge. It will connect through to City Hall, Manhattan, by way of the Centre street subway. It will be seen from the foregoing that the city is now following a definite policy of Brooklyn Bridge relief. Constant day and night inspection is carried on by this Commission as a basis for suggestions or orders to the operating companies for improvements. Dated October 3, 1907. Respectfully submitted, EDWARD M. BASSETT, Chairman, Brooklyn Bridge.- Regulation of vehicular traffic during rush hours. [Recommendations made to the Bridge Commissioner that during rush hours no heavily loaded wagons be allowed to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and that all vehicles crossing during these hours be required to keep off the car tracks.] Commissioner Bassett read the following resolution and then made a brief statement regarding it: Whereas, The Bridge Department has compiled data showing that heavily loaded vehicles crossing Brooklyn Bridge in rush hours and the use of the surface tracks by the lighter vehicles are one of the main causes of delays and slow moving of surface cars over the Brooklyn Bridge, and these findings of the Bridge Department having been confirmed by investigation made by this board: Resolved, That this board earnestly recommends to the Bridge Commissioner as a means of increasing the usefulness of the Brooklyn Bridge for the traveling public in rush hours, that he put into force two rules substantially as follows: First. That during rush hours, from 7 to 9 A. M., and from 5 to 7 P. M., no heavily loaded wagons be allowed to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, and Second. That all vehicles crossing the Brooklyn Bridge during these hours be required to keep off the car tracks. Commissioner Bassett: "Inspection during the last two months has discovered that one of the main causes for the slow movement of the trolley cars in rush hours is this blocking on the bridge roadway by heavily loaded teams that break down and by lighter vehicles that get on the tracks between the electric cars. The figures of the loss of time caused by overloaded trucks show that in July 192 minutes of stoppage was caused from this reason alone, and a total of stoppage due to vehicular traffic on the bridge amounted to 367 minutes. In the month of *See footnote, page 9. August these figures were 20 minutes, due to overloaded trucks and 402 minutes due to all vehicular traffic. Slow movements caused by vehicular traffic amount to as much more. The number of overloaded trucks that go over in rush hours is small, averaging only about eight vehicles during a single rush period, but out of those eight fully loaded vehicles, there is very great liability of one or more breaking down and causing the delay of thousands of people. We have carefully considered whether these regulations would be a hardship to the truckmen and merchants of the city, and have concluded that as the number of these heavily loaded trucks is so small and as it will be possible for them to go either before or after the rush hours or to cross the other bridge or ferries, it will benefit the greatest number to promulgate these rules. At the end of a hard day's work the horses seem to be in a weakened condition and going over the bridge with its high grades in the evening rush hours causes stoppages. I wish to say, too, that the same offenders have broken down one time after another and in some cases it has almost looked as though they depend upon getting in a steep part of the bridge and having the cars push them over with the help of poles in the height of the rush hours. This is a practice that can so easily be remedied without hardship to many that for the sake of the travelling public, it seems entirely right to put it into force. We have conferred with the Bridge Commissioner on these matters and are working in entire harmony with him. In case of the lighter vehicles, the trouble is that they dash into the spaces between the trolley cars and run ahead and then cannot find an opening in the line of trucks to get out and into the stream of wagon traffic again, and the number of people rushing in in that way often completely fills up the space between the trolley cars, destroying all freedom of movement and thus obstructing traffic. Under the charter, the Bridge Commissioner is the one to promulgate these rules." Chairman Willcox: "They could, however, be put into effect by the Bridge Commissioner." Commissioner Bassett: 'They could have been, and will be if the Bridge Commissioner, as he no doubt will, will follow our suggestions in this respect." Commissioner Eustis: "I think he has power to keep the trucks off the bridge at all times. I think an overloaded truck should be kept off at all times." Commissioner Bassett: "We are not using the words overloaded '- it is heavily loaded.'" Chairman Willcox: "Do you know that the Bridge Commissioner has any rulea relating to the bridge traffic?" Commissioner Bassett: "Yes, he has." Chairman Willcox: "But nothing to affect the points that you wish to make." Commissioner Bassett: "There is nothing that substantially affects these points." The resolution was adopted. October 11, 1907. Additional Subway for Manhattan and The Bronx. [The Broadway-Lexington Avenue Subway route as modified ought to be constructed. No connection should be made with present subway at Forty-second street, as the present subway has all the traffic it can handle and competitors of the Interborough would be at a disadvantage in bidding for operation.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE. The Committee of the Whole presented to the Commission the following report of its sub-committee, consisting of Commissioners Maltbie and Eustis, upon the matter of additional subways for Manhattan and The Bronx: December 30, 1907. To the Public Service Commission for the Frst District. SIRS Your committee appointed to report upon additional subways for Manhattan and the Bronx, beg to submit the following report: The urgent need for the immediate construction of another rapid transit subway in Manhattan and the Bronx needs no proof. Every person who uses the present lines knows that they are congested, that the conditions of overcrowding are indecent and that every improvement that can be made will hardly be sufficient to See footnote, page 9. |