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The New Haven has one of the worst on-time records (82.8%) of any U.S. road, suffers from a fantastically high breakdown record. Alpert has cut maintenance costs drastically—although, quips one sardonic commuter, "It's not quite come to the point where your wife kisses you goodbye every morning thinking it's the last time." He has also needled commuters with such niggling little gestures as the removal of the nightly express "theater" train to the suburbs—as has the New York Central. "Riding the New Haven," says a Wall Street commuter, "is the most vicious form of travel known to man." Cheaper Than Cars. One key to the railroads' financial plight is the commuter fare. Despite hefty hikes in the last few years, it is still one of the biggest bargains in the U.S. For example, a commuter can ride on the New Haven between Manhattan and Larchmont, N.Y., a commuter bedroom 19 miles from the city, for 50¢ a ride on a 46-ride commutation ticket—one-fourth or less of what it would cost to drive his car, not counting parking fees. One reason for the low fares is that U.S. railroads still suffer from the bad reputation earned in the days of the Robber Barons, when, as a monopoly, they often gouged the public. Now, though they are far from monopoly, they find it tough to get permission from the ICC and state utility commissions for fare increases. The Long Island Rail Road, biggest U.S. commuter line, was unable to get a fare hike from 1918 to 1947, despite repeated requests. Other railroads waited too long to press for hikes, let fares over the years fall far behind rising costs. Most claim that they now need 50% to 70% higher fares just to break even on the commuter.
"The commuter pays only a fraction of the cost," says the Central's Main, "and he doesn't see why he should pay more." But the commuter may soon have to change his thinking. The longer he resists fare hikes, the worse his lot may become.
Any intelligent New Haven rider, for instance, knows that if the road cannot make money, it will go bust—and he will have to find another, more expensive way to work. Many roads fear that raising fares much more will drive more commuters to the auto. But the sturdy rail commuters still left have little taste for exchanging their lot for traffic chaos. The Long Island has raised fares four times since 1956, yet has never lost more than 1% of its commuters after any hike.
Milk the Cow. Higher fares do not make the entire answer to the railroads' problems. The very nature of the commuter business—running at a peak for only four hours daily—means that roads must keep expensive equipment and labor idle for most of the day. "You couldn't profitably run a shoe factory or a bean cannery on such a schedule." says the Long Island's president, Thomas Goodfellow.