Report on Metropolitan Ry.

—by—

York County Council Transportation Committee.

(Continued from page 1.)

Railways are still and will continue to be the most economical agency for transporting large numbers of people. Fundamentally, the electrical railway transportation is less costly than bus transportation. Bus transportation is a special-de-luxe service appreciated by the few, but not adapted for the many. The people along the Metropolitan Railway consider the radial a safe and dependable means of transportation; but, in general, they have not the same confidence in motor coaches. Motor coaches have their greatest field of service in urban and suburban traffic, but not long haul routes especially where winter conditions of ice and snow are not favorable.

In our opinion, a great drawback to the use of the Metropolitan radial at present is the long and slow ride on Yonge Street after transferring to the city cars. The radials have an average speed of about twenty miles per hour. The city cars on Yonge Street average about nine miles per hour. This long ride on Yonge Street of about forty-five minutes' duration from the city boundary to downtown Toronto is what tends to kill the radial service. There is an opportunity here for co-ordination of bus service with the radial service to lessen this time of transit in the city by at least fifteen or twenty minutes. If bus service could be given to radial passengers into the heart of Toronto with transfer privileges to the city street cars at little extra cost, it would be a great "boost" to the radials, and would be no detriment to the city system. As Toronto grows, high speed transport will likely be provided to upper Yonge Street, which will greatly benefit the radial line. The entrance to downtown Toronto at the present time from the radial terminus should be greatly improved, and the best solution would appear to be by the coordination of bus service on streets parallel to Yonge Street.

During the summer months, the highway traffic on Yonge Street through Richmond Hill, Aurora and points farther north is very heavy and at week-end, congested. Motor coaches, on account of their length and width, tend to impeded this traffic. The radial always has an unobstructed right-of-way, and if the radial line be removed there will be further congestion on the highway. The radial cars carry from sixty-five to eighty passengers. At times of heavy traffic, if these passengers are to be carried by coaches with capacity ranging from twenty to thirty passengers, the highway will be still more congested. At week-ends, for each crowded radial, at least three buses will be required to handle the same traffic, and the addition of twenty or thirty buses on the highway for peak load conditions will further impede and congest traffic on the highway, and will be of no benefit to the City of Toronto as a principal thoroughfare leading to it.

Undoubtedly, in the near future, plans will be under consideration for the widening of Yonge Street as far north as Richmond Hill and probably to Aurora. The question is—"Is there ultimately a place in the development of upper Yonge Street for a two-track radial or street car line in the center of the improved highway with another line of pavement to the east of the car tracks?" A highway having width of approximately 105 feet would be required to provide for this development. The location of the existing pavement near the centre of the highway requires a wider street than usual for this proposed future development. In the development and widening of Yonge Street north of the city there should be a place in the future, we think, for car lines. The radial line now runs up Yonge Street as far north as Mulock's Corners, a distance of 21 miles from the city boundary.

In planning for future highways adjacent to Toronto, a city of at least double the present population should be kept in mind. The greatest drawback to the City of Toronto today, in our opinion, as a metropolitan center, is the narrow streets comprising the busy thoroughfares. Sooner or later, large expenditures will have to be made to widen important streets and cut through new highways to take care of the ever increasing motor traffic. As a lesson from the past it will be of benefit to the city to have the development of a wide thoroughfare on Yonge Street north of the city limits. Generally speaking, the radial line now serves a class of people who do not own or operate motor cars and who prefer radial transportation to motor coaches. In spite of the great increase in the number of motor cars, there will always be a large population who cannot afford to have the same, and consequently the radial is assured of a permanent transportation constituency. Also if the service on the radials were made more attractive, it is our opinion that on account of the increasing difficulty and expense of parking motor cars in the heart of the city, more people would use the radials. The present radial cars or most of them, have been in service for more than twenty years. The antimated electrical equipment is obsolete. The cars are noisy, unattractive, heavy, uneconomical vehicles of transportation and should be replaced by medium weight attractive modern passenger cars of one-man type operating. New modern cars would be much more economical to operate, more pleasant and attractive to ride in and cost considerably less for repairs. According to official returns the cost of power per car mile on the Metropolitan is a little over 8 cents, which is nearly double the cost per car mile for electrical energy for the city cars.

If the Metropolitan radial line is abandoned, no doubt it is the intention to supply the traffic demand with motor coaches, at least as far north as Newmarket, and probably to Sutton in the summer months. There are no figures available for this report as to the financial aspect of the operation of the present motor coaches. If the radial is not paying, are the motor coaches on these interurban routes paying any better? To the casual observer, these motor coach lines operating up and down Yonge Street are relatively not so fully occupied as the radials, and the cost per passenger mile on the motor coach is basically higher. The cost per car mile on the radials is about 45 cents.—i.e., the unit cost for operating a radial car a distance of one mile. On the motor coach the cost per coach mile, I believe, is about 35 cents. The radial car, on average will carry about three times as many passengers as a motor coach. Consequently, the cost of carrying a passenger one mile on the radial car is considerably less—about 40%—than the cost of carrying a passenger one mile on a motor coach.

Many bus and motor coach lines have failed and on bus line operating in the vicinity of Toronto has deficits every year. The rapid development of motor coach transportation on this continent since 1920 has been very great. But we question very much if the long route motor coach lines will show earnings over a period of years when proper allowances have been made for depreciation, renewals and obsolete models. The fashions change quickly in the design of motor coaches, as with automobiles, and the figures for depreciation are very high.

On January 1st, 1929, in the Untied States, according to reliable statistics, there were 40,804 miles of electric railway track; in 1928, 41,739 miles; in 1927, 42,405 miles; 1927 42,743 miles; and in 1925, 43,106 miles. IN 1925 there were 82,446 electric railway passenger cars; and in 1929, 80,014 cars. On January 1st, 1925, there were 53,200 motor buses in operation; and in 1929, 92,400 buses. The large increase in the number of buses has been accompanied by the abandonment of less than 6% of the electric railway mileage. No one can, therefore, contend that the buses are replacing electric railways all over the country.

Of the 92,400 buses, electric railways and subsidiaries own and operate 10,062 to act as feeders and in conjunction with the rail service. About 50 companies out of 350 have adopted this bus feeder system. Buses for transporting school children, operating in connection with 15,929 schools are in use in the number of 40,875—nearly half of the total buses in operation. Sign seeing service accounts for 2,750 buses, and steam railroads and subsidiaries use 1,256. In the City of Chicago, the per cent of total passengers carried by buses has not increased since 1925. Our conclusions is that buses are not replacing properly located electric railways, but are operating more and more in conjunction with them, and in other special fields of service such as transporting school children and supplying carrier service to new sub-divisions for which they are particularly adapted.

If the radial line is abandoned, and if, on account of operating losses, the future policy of the T.T.C. were to discontinue the operation of motor coaches, the district served by the radial line would suffer a very serious set-back. The only investment the T.T.C. has in the motor coach service is the coaches themselves, and garage and repair facilities. The policy of the Commission might change overnight and the present territory served by the radial line would suffer. If the radial line were abandoned, it would not be reconstructed, and before any such abandonment takes place, I think the operating results of the motor coaches on Yomge Street in the territory served by the radials should be available.

According to Mr. Harvey's figures, the revenue passengers carried on the Metropolitan Radial are as follows:

Year ending October 31, 1923, 1.969,800.

Year ending October 31, 1924, 1,753,797.

Year ending October 31, 1925, 1,785,262.

Year ending October 31, 1926, 1,765,085.

Year ending October 31, 1927, 1,750,504.

Year ending October 31, 1928, 1,680,779.

8 months January to August, 1929, 999,012. (bus competition).

The decrease from, 1923 to 1928 is about 15%. Our opinion of these results is that, considering the service and the obsolete equipment, the decrease is no more than could be expected. Today the number of passengers carried stand at about the irreducible minimum.

According to Mr. Harvey, the debentures outstanding against the Metropolitan Division to $2,510,000.00, which debt will be repaid with interest according to the city bylaws covering the debenture issues by about 1940. The annual fixed charges for payment of interest and repayment of principal amounts to $271,542.00. For the relatively short period of repayment of the debt the annual principal payment would naturally be high. By about 1940 the city will own the radial free of debt. A railway line properly operated and maintained is in the nature of a continuing property. It should be as valuable, if not more valuable, in 1940 than it is today. In 1940 the annual interest and sinking fund payment would be only for debenture payments for improvements to the service between now and 1940. The annual fixed charges are heavy now on account of the comparatively early cancellation of the debt.

We have not had time to make a detailed inventory and valuation of the existing Metropolitan line with all equipment property and facilities. In its present truncated form—that is, minus the fourteen miles of the Schomberg line and the three miles of Yonge Street absorbed by the city system, we are of the opinion that the outstanding debentures of $2,510,000.00 represents a valuation far greater than the actual or fair value of the line. The "fair value" of the railway line today, as a going concern, would be the cost of reconstruction new less accrued depreciation, and less deductions for obsolete equipment and buildings.

The accrued depreciation would be heavy. In the "Clean-up Deal" of 1920, all the radials comprising the equal of some 96 miles of single track, were purchased for $2,375,000.00. After nine years of operation, the Metropolitan radial alone, comprising the equal of some 57 miles of single track, has debenture obligations of $2,510,000.00. Capital expenditures have been made, but the same cars are in operation. This figure of $2,510,000.00 is obviously much too high, considering the condition of the railway. If the "water" be taken out of the debenture obligations we do not think the fair value would exceed $950,000.00. On this valuation annual fixed charges over a longer period of time would not exceed $85,000.00. This would reduce the annual fixed charges now charged against the Metropolitan radial from what it should properly carry, according to an approximate estimate of its valuation by an amount of $186,500.00.

As a result of this calculation, if $186,500.00 were deducted from the reported deficit of $327,019.92 on the Metropolitan Division in 1927, the deficit would be reduced to $140,000.00. And during this year there were extraordinary expenses on account of changing the track, gauge, etc.,$60,000.00, which under ordinary conditions would bring the deficit down to about $80,000.00 And this, with the high operating cost of antiquated and worn-out equipment. Of course we appreciate the fact that the city has the annual fixed charges to pay no matter what the conditions are relating to the railway line. The figures above quoted should be taken into consideration is considering the operation of the railway line on its own merits.

Our opinion is that if the service on the Metropolitan radial be improved by the purchase of new modern cars, by the co-ordination of a bus service to act as feeders to the railway, and not in competition with its; and if the line be given sympathetic operation and the competing motor coach lines be removed, the revenue will considerably more than pay operating expenses. And with an increase in population and development that might be expected along the territory served, it has a good chance of meeting reasonable annual fixed charges. The uncertainty regarding the policy affecting the operating of the radial line has militated against the development of the area tributary to the radial; and with the uncertain conditions prevailing it is useless for us to develop flow and mileage diagrams with future estimates of revenue, operating expenses, etc. We are more interested at the present time in facts and figures as relating to the past operation of the radial line and the present motor coach competing service.

In considering the route of the radial line, it is well to remember that large investments have been made in property and buildings along the line of the radial by reasons of its operation. If a definite decisions be made that the radial service will be improved and continued it will, we believe, stimulate more development in the territory served and will benefit the operation of the railway.

Considering the question broadly, what will the City of Toronto gain by abandoning the this line? The fixed charges, amounting to $271,542.00, will have to be paid anyway, whether the cars operate or not. In our opinion, a rehabilitated radial line with new cars, will considerably more than pay operating expenses. As a result the city will not lose any more money per annum by the operation fo the line and the district served will greatly benefit. The motor coach development is of such recent years, it should not be adopted to replace the radial line in the present uncertain transportation period. Interurban electric lines have an assured place in the transportation field for fundamental reasons of economy and mass transportation, and the trend is not in the direction of replacing interurban lines with motor coach operation. Motor coaches are finding a wide field of service as feeders to railway liens and in the development of suburban districts where radial lines do not operate.

The City of Toronto surely has Metropolitan obligations beyond the city boundary. The city needs the good-will and business of the suburban districts, and the district tributary to this radial line, and similarly, this district needs the City of Toronto. The summer resort facilities at Lake Simcoe and Bond Lake are an asset to the City of Toronto, and will be a greater asset if cheap transportation be furnished on a modern electric railway. This service is especially valuable to those who cannot afford motor cars. If the radial line is abandoned, there will be a loss to the city in that the people living in the territory near the radial line will not have the same economic access and business contact with the Toronto business and commercial interests. The T.T.C. city system also obtains a considerable amount of business from radial passengers, additional street car riders, when they come to and go from Toronto. In the case of the Mimic-New Toronto, this additional traffic was estimated to equal $125,000.00 per year to the Toronto system, and would be a considerable amount from the Metropolitan radial.

In conclusion, we wish to state that if the Metropolitan radial line continues in operation, in our opinion, the Railway should be operated by the Toronto Transportation Commission. The T.T.C. have the facilities, we think, to make this railway line a success by co-relating the electric railway service with motor coach feeder service and city street cars.

The T.T.C have a splendid reputation for efficiency and successful management; and if the same efficiency and enthusiasm be applied by the T.T.C. in the operation of the Metropolitan Railway. We have no fears as to the ultimate success and serviceability of the railway.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

Railways: Met.Ry., S. & A.Ry. , T.T.C.

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