CHAPTER XXVI THE ORGANIZATION AND SERVICES OF THE PASSENGER TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT Growth of passenger traffic-Scope of this volume-General passenger traffic organization of the Pennsylvania Railroad-Of the Southern Pacific Company-Management of Pullman, mail, and express services-Duties assigned passenger traffic officials of Pennsylvania Railroad-The work of the Passenger Traffic Manager and the General Passenger Agent-Tasks assigned the subdivisions of the passenger department of the Pennsylvania Railroad-References. THE passenger business of railways becomes of greater importance year by year, not only absolutely, but also relatively, to the freight services. As cities grow in size and number, as population becomes more dense and per capita wealth greater, travel more than proportionately increases; and, although the freight tonnage and earnings also rise rapidly, the expansion of the passenger traffic shows an even higher percentage. It is upon the oldest railway systems, those serving the most fully developed countries or sections of a country, that the ratio of passenger earnings to freight receipts is highest. On the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, for instance, the passenger trains bring in 48 per cent of the total earnings and the freight trains 51 per cent; while on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, a typical road in the middle West, the passenger earnings are 26.72 per cent and the freight receipts 72.67 per cent of the total earnings from operation. Moreover, the statistics of the traffic on steam railroads only partially express the increase in travel resulting from the growth in population, density, and per capita wealth; since 1890 electric railway lines have spread rapidly, and in many sections of the United States at the present time. the suburban and interurban traffic of the electrics exceeds that of the steam roads. From the point of view of the steam lines this means serious competition, although it has not prevented a rapid growth of their passenger traffic as a whole; from the standpoint of the public the multiplication and extension of electric railways afford greater facilities with which to satisfy the increasing demand for transportation and the stronger desire for travel. This discussion of the passenger business of steam railroads will naturally include, first, an account of the various services performed by the passenger department, and, second, the consideration of the fares charged by steam roads and of the influence of electric railways upon the services and charges of the steam railroads. To each of these two general subjects a separate part and several chapters of the book are devoted. In this, the opening chapter of the section upon the passenger service, the organization of the activities of the passenger department will be described. Succeeding chapters will describe, in turn and with appropriate detail, the several services. The place which the passenger department occupies in the general railroad organization and the relation of the passenger and freight divisions of the traffic department, as a whole, were set forth in Volume I, Chapter IV, upon the Organization of the Freight Traffic Department. Practically every railroad company has a Traffic Vice President in charge of both the freight and passenger services. The larger companies usually have either one Traffic Manager, with jurisdiction over both services, or two Traffic Managers-one for freight and one for passenger business. The Pennsylvania Railroad, the ranking railway in volume of both passenger and freight business, has a Passenger Traffic Manager and another Traffic Manager for freight, but no Manager with authority over both services, the duties which such an official would perform being exercised by the Traffic Vice President. On the other hand, the UnionSouthern Pacific, to which the late Mr. E. H. Harriman gave one of the highest types of organization, has a Traffic Vice President, who is subject to the Director of Traffic, and two Traffic Managers-one for freight and one for the passenger service. The necessity for having a single traffic head over the federation of large railway systems included in the Harriman Lines" is apparent. Harmony and unity of traffic policy would otherwise be practically impossible. A railway system of medium proportions, like the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western or the Philadelphia & Reading, is apt to have the passenger branch of the service headed by the General Passenger Agent, while the freight department, which has charge of a larger volume of business, is under the control of a Freight Traffic Manager, who, like the General Passenger Agent, reports directly to the Traffic Vice President. The general organization of the passenger traffic departments of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and of the Southern Pacific Company may be selected as typical of large systems. One is a large but closely consolidated system, managed from a single center; while the other is so decentralized as to require several administrative centers. The Pennsylvania organization was presented in Chapter IV, but may be repeated here as a basis for the present discussion: |
