Vol. LXXXVI





MAY 13, 1911





No. 2252-





THE INTERBOROUGH'S AMENDED SUBWAY OFFER.

Company  Makes Large   Conceisions,   But   Leaves   Untouched   Some   Points
Objected to by the Joint Committee—The B. R. T. Plan Expected to Prevail.





THE amended Interborough offer does
not appear to have met with ap¬
proval from a majority of the members
of the Joint Conference Committee of the
Board of Estimate and the Public Service
Commission. It is believed that two re¬
ports will be handed in by the committee
early next week and that the majority
report will favor the proposition subtnit-
ted by the Brooklyn Rapid Tran.'iit Com¬
pany.

The amended Interborough offer makes
important concessions without eliminat¬
ing all the features of its original propo¬
sition of Dec. 5, 1910, to which the Joint
Conference Committee took exception.
The company declines to consider the
ciuestion of express tracking the elevated
roads as a separate issue, apart from
the matter of subway construction. It
is willing to place certain sections of its
existing subway under the indeterminate
franchise law, so as to enable the city to
take over at the end of ten years a com¬
plete subway system either on the east
side  or  on  tbe  west  side  of Manhattan,





to the judgment and approval of the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, The
operating contract of the Interborough is
complicated and demands more in the
way of guarantees against loss. It is,
perhaps, impossible to say whether the
city would actually derive a better in¬
come under the one contract than under
tlie other, but it is claimed that the city
would accept larg-er financial responsibili¬
ties under the Interborough's.

As regards construction contracts,
however, that of the Interborough is,
financially, by far the more advantageous
to the city. The Investment which the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company pro¬
poses to make in construction Tvork is
relatively insignificant. The Interborough
on the Other hand, offers to invest a
dollar for every dollar invested by the
city.

With respect to routes the propositions
of the two companies are both open to
criticism. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit
plan is notably favorable to Brooklyn.
The   Interborough   plan   provides  the   bet-





should be turned, over to the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit Company. Those routes
must help to pay the cost of operating
suburban extensions, and the Interbor¬
ough with its Bronx power plants and
terminals can, other things being equal,
operate trains in the Bronx more eco¬
nomically than the Brooklyn Rapid Tran¬
sit Company.

The Interborough is able to do more for
the northern part of the city at a given
investment of new capital than the Brook¬
lyn Rapid Transit Company, while the
reverse holds true with respect to the
southern part of the city, and this cir¬
cumstance is an important consideration
in allotting such valuable routes in Man¬
hattan as are not yet pre-empted.

Here is a brief summary of the more
important features of the Interborough's
proposition,      omitting        description      of

routes, which are sufficiently indicated on
the map:

First—The company will construct and
put in* operation within two years the
Jerome avenue,   the White Plains avenue,





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RAPID  TRANSIT   SYSTEM  PROPOSED   BY  THE   INTERBOROUGH.





but this concession is dependent upon
the approval of the company's bondhold¬
ers. Finally, the terms which the com¬
pany offers in its capacity as an operator
are understood to be less satisfactory to
the Joint Conference Committee than are
the terms proposed by the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit Company.

The proposition of the two companies
virtually contain, each, an operating con¬
tract and a construction contract. The
operating contract of the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit Company is comparatively simple
and asks no indemnity from the city
against loss, except in the case of future
extensions, which  may be built contrary





ter transit for the Bronx. Each com¬
pany, unfortunately, contemplates routes
ill IVIanhattan which would probably
make it unprofitable for the other to
enlarge its system  there.

The interests of the city as a whole
demand that both shall have room for
expansion in the central boroughs. They
demand that the exisiting, as well as
the future, population of Brooklyn shall
have direct communication with the busi¬
ness sections of iManhattan at a five cent
fare in the same manner that the popu¬
lation of the Bronx now has, but there
is some difference of opinion as to which
of   the   local   traffic  routes   in  Manhattan





the Astoria, and the Woodside lines, to¬
gether with the subway section from
Times Square to the Pennsylvania sta¬
tion. It will also finish within two years
the third tracking of its elevated system.
The rest of the construction work will be
flnished in five years.

Second—-The company will expend $G7,-
559,000 of its own money, as against the
same amount by the city, in construction
of new lines, and $31,905,000 of its own
money  in  equipment.

Third—The company's profits on the ex¬
tensions, after all operating expenses are
paid and the interest and sinking fund
on   both   the   company's   and   the   city's