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WHAT LOW FARES HAVE DONE
A Thorough Discussion of the Results
of the Reduction in Rates on the
Western and Atlantic.
Four months ago the Western &
Atlantic railroad announced a reduc
tion in railroad passenger rates to a
point below that of any other railroad
in the southern states and as low as
that of any in the country.
It was a wonderful experiment in
railroading and the result is of inter
est to every man, woman and child in
-this broad land. Had it been differ
ent from what if is, it would probably
have meant that our present rates
would be the standard for many years
to come, but the wonderful success of
the venture makes it almost certain
that it is only a question of time when
the people will receive the advantages
of a general reduction in passenger
rates.
A Constitution reporter talked with
Mr. Joseph M. Brown, general pas
senger agent of the Western and At
lantic road, early in June and asked
him then how the new venture was
turning out.
“I would prefer to wait another
month,” said Mr. Brown, “for I want
to give it a full trial. We have tried
it three months, and I wish to see if
the fourth month will tally with the
other three. If so it cannot any long
er be claimed that it is a mere novelty,
because the novelty would have worn
off long before this.”
HOW IT IS WORKING.
In accordance with this suggestion
a Constitution reporter called yesterday
at Mr. Brown’s office and asked :
“What is the result of the four
months’ trial of your reduced passenger
fares ?”
“Well,” said Mr. Brown, “as we
have been asked so very many times
whether we were making a success or
a failure of our experiment, and as
this question has come from railroad
men high in rank, as well as from citi
zens interested in the matter, beyond
mere curiosity, and who desired to
know whether the result of our experi
ment would be the keeping of the
rates down or advancing them, I sup
pose it is not improper for me to give
you the result. I will premise by stat
ing that it has been a success in every
respect.”
“About what was the average re
duction of your rates ?”
“The average on tickets which cover
the majority of our travel was about
20 per cent, although it ran from 16
per cent on short distances to nearly
30 per cent on the rate from Atlanta
to Chattanooga.”
A WONDERFUL INCREASE.
“And your travel has increased
more than 20 per cent, then ?”
“Yes, sir,” said Mr. Brown, “it has
increased more than 40 per cent.
Some of our railroad friends predicted
at the outset that our travel would not
be permanently increased more than
10 percent, and said that in order to
bring about this result we had cut our
rates from 20 to 30 per cent, and that
we were bound to lose money by the
experiment as soon as the novelty
wore off. It seems, however, that
they were mistaken, not we.
“You may be interested in knowing
just how the general figures stand. I
will therefore state that during the
month of March we sold at our stations
thirty-eight per cent more tickets than
we sold during March of last year;during
April we sold fifty-four per cent more
tickets than during the previous April;
during May we sold twenty-eight per
cent more tickets than we did the pre-
vious May, and this in spite of the fact
that during May, 1887, we sold
more tickets than we did during the
same month for four previous years,
and in spite also of the fact than during
May, 1887, the Sam Jones revival
meetings were going on at Carters
ville, to which we sold many hundreds
of tickets ; whereas, during this May
we had nothing extraordinary in the
way of ticket sales, (in fact a less num
ber of picnics than during May of last
year), but only what we term current
travel. During June, our fourth
month under the reduced rates, we
sold 56 per cent more tickets than dur
ing June of last year. This would in
dicate that the novelty increased the
longer it continued.
“These figures make their own
speech more eloquently than I could
make it for them, and prove absolute
ly that the Western and Atlantic
Railroad company did not make a
mistake when it reduced its passenger
fares to less than three cents per mile.
“This truth is emphasized when I
state that our revenue for each of the
four months named was greater than
it was for the same four months of
previous years under the three cent
rate.
THE INCREASE STEADY.
“It was claimed, as I have already
indicated, by some of our railroad
brethren, that the novelty of the cheap
rates would increase the volume of
travel for a while, but that this novel
ty would wear off in a month or two,
and that matters would then drop back
into substantially the old ruts, except
that possibly the permanent effects
might be an increase of about 10 per
cent in the number of people traveling,
and that we would, as the months
rolled along, lose money, because we
had reduced our fares over 20 per
cent. We readily admitted that the
novelty of cheap fares would stimu
late travel for a while; but claimed
that there would be a large enough
permanent increase in travel to give
us a permanent gain in revenue —in
other words, that the ‘novelty’ would
not have the mere temporary effect
they claimed, because we were pledged
to a permanent and not a temporary
reduction, therefore a man would rea
son that he could get the benefit of the
reduced fares whether he traveled in
March or in July, and consequently
would not unduly inconvenience him
self to travel in March or April. The
figures showing a constant heavy in
crease in our ticket sales are a vindi
cation of our judgment in the matter.”
NOT A SURPRISE.
“Those will be astonishing figures to
publish. Do they not go far beyond
your own expectations ?”
“No, sir. If we had expected to
come out behind, or to only come out
whole in this reduction, I do not see
why we would have made it. We
expected from the beginning that the
increase in travel would more than
compensate for the reduction per ticket,
and that therefore we would make
money by the reduction.”
“Are there any special features in
your ticket sales now which are dis
tinguishable from those under the
three cents rate ?”
“Yes, sir,” said Mr. Brown, “one
very noticeable feature is the upsetting
of the theory which has prevailed with
nearly all railroad men for many years
past; in fact, I suppose ever since
there have been railroads. That is
that the increase in travel is in pro
portion to the density of the popula
tion. In other words, that if you have
a thickly-settled country and one
which is growing rapidly in population,
there will be a constant and considera
ble increase in the volume of travel,
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
whereas in a sparsely-settled country
there will be very little increase of
travel, no matter if you reduce the
rates until the tickets almost amount
to no charge at all.”
A THEORY UPSET.
“You say that the Western & At
lantic’s experience within the past
four months has upset this theory ?”
“Yes, sir,” said Mr. Brown, “it ap
parently has. For instance, let us
take the smallest stations on our line.
Vining’s has a population of hardly
20 people ; Mclvor’s scarcely more;
Allatoona less than 20, Hall’s less
than 20 ; McDaniel’s less than 20, and
Rocky Face only about 25 or 30. The
most of the traveling from those stations,
therefore, is done by the country peo
ple living in the region around, and
not by the few people at the stations.
During the four months of March,
April, May and June, in 1887 and
1888, respectively, we sold the fol
lowing number of tickets at the sta
tions named:
4 months. 4 months
in 1887. in 1888.
Vining’s 104 tickets 398 tickets.
Mclvor’s 339 “ 548 “
Allatoona ...102 “ ... 310 “
Hall’s 26 “ 108 “
McDaniel’s .41 “ 575 “
Rocky Face.. 41 “ 194 “
“There has been no boom, nor any
marked increase of population at any
of these stations, hence the increase in
ticket sales must be owing chiefly to
the reduction of the rates. Each of
these stations showed a decided in
crease each month over the same
month in 1887.
“These figures tell a different story
from what railroad men theoretically
supposed they would tell, and show
that the reduction in the rates did
cause more travel from the smaller
and obscure stations than existed
when the rates were higher.
“So if we take the next grade of
stations with population running from
200 down to 75 respectively, we find
that the following comparison holds
for the same months of 1887 under
the old rates as compared with tho&e
of 1888 under the new rates :
4 months 4 months
in 1887. in 1888.
Bolton 1,167 tickets 1,940 tickets
Smyrna.... 484 “ 1.092 “
Big Shanty.. .352 “ 579 “
Emerson 152 “ 925 “
Resaca 293 “ 792 “
Tilton 242 “ 460 “
“Emerson is the only one of these
stations which has experienced any
thing in the nature of a boom. The
increase from the others we can cer
tainly attribute almost entirely to the
cheaper fares.
“From stations with population
ranging from 700 down to 350, the in
crease in ticket sales was as follows:
Acworth, 41 per cent; Kingston, 56
per cent; Ringgold 51 per cent;
Adairsville, 73 per cent, and Calhoun
112 per cent.
“From Cartersville, Dalton and
Marietta, which have from 2,750 to
3,500 population respectively, the in
crease in ticket sales amounted to an
average of over 40 per cent. Atlan
ta’s increase was 30 per cent, and
Chattanooga’s 23 per cent, which
speaks volumes for Atlanta.
“Each one of the thirty-three sta
tions on the road showed a gratifying
increase.
“I was showing some of these figures
to a gentleman ot wide-spread reputa
tion throughout the south, who is also
a railroad president of a large system,
and he remarked to me: ‘I have al
ways held that the increase in travel
is more in proportion to the facilities
you offer than to the rate. In other
words, that if you furnish several
trains per day upon which the people
can travel, they will get more into the
habit of traveling, and will want to
travel more than will be the case if
you have only one or two trains per
day, or at least a very few, and have
a lower rate than you have with many
trains.’
“Then, said I to him, how do you
account for the fact that the most re
markable increase in our ticket sales
has been from those stations between
Kingston and Dalton, which is the
part of our road where we run the
fewest passenger trains, and to which,
therefore, we offer the fewest facili
ties?
“From Atlanta to Kingston we run
five passenger trains per day each
way, between Atlanta and Marietta
there being in fact, six per day each
way. From Dalton to Chattanooga
we run five passenger trains per day
each way; whereas, between Kingston
and Dalton we run only four per
day each way, which are our through
trains, and some of these trains do not
stop at some of the smaller stations;
therefore, at McDaniel’s, for instance,
we only stop four passenger trains per
day; whereas, at Big Shanty, we stop
nine passenger trains per day.
“‘So I might compare each of the
stations between Kingston and Dalton
with the same number of stations
between Dalton and Chattanooga, or
between Kingston and Atlanta, and
it would be shown that there is a
greater proportion of increase in the
ticket sales between Kingston and
Dalton than from stations where we
have more trains per day.’
“The gentleman to whom I was
talking studied for a few moments
and then remarked : Well, I con
fess I do not know how to account for
that.’ He has a good deal of compa
ny in this.
“Now, I don’t pretend to assert that
you decrease the volume of travel
when you increase the number of your
trains, because I don’t believe you do;
but I am convinced that these figures
show that our reduction in fares was
the true reason for the increase in the
travel, whether from Atlanta, Mari
etta, Adairsville, McDaniel’s or any
other station ; and that after all is
what we started out to prove when we
reduced our fares.”
AS TO EXPENSES.
“How are your expenses, Mr.
Brown, as compared with those for
the same months last year?”
“I am glad you asked me that
question, for the answer establishes the
correctness of what we claimed would
be the case before we put the reduced
rates in effect. We have not run a,,
single passenger train more during
March, April, May and June of this
year than we did during the same
months last year, yet our travel has
increased, as I have stated to you, to
an almost wonderful degree. It costs
us practically no more money to run
trains with forty people in a coach
than to run them with fifteen people
in a coach. Therefore, until the in
crease in travel amounts to enough to
cause us to put on another coach we
can safely claim that whenever the
number increases above the old num
ber to an extent enough to more than
cover the amount of the reduction per
ticket we will then begin to reduce
the expenses per passenger per mile.
Our general bookkeeper’s statement
shows that during each of the four
months of this year under the low
rates, as compared with the same four
months last year under the high rates,
our gross earnings have increased and
our expenses per passenger per mile
have been materially less.”
“Then you are convinced that the
Western and Atlantic Railroad com’