How To Get Passengers Back On The Trains.

Maybe this is the answer to the reliable old problem of how to recover lost passenger traffic. It was published recently in the Baltimore Evening Sun:—

“The railroads of the country are complaining of the falling off in passenger traffic caused by the increasing popularity of the automobile. This constitutes a serious problem, yet the solution is selfevident. Obviously the railroads should do everything in their power to make travel on them resemble that in automobiles. Here are a few suggestions:

“For the benefit of the men, speedometers should be placed conspicuously in every car, so that passengers may see the speed at which the train is going. For the benefit of the women, communication should be provided between them and the engineer so that they can offer suggestions as to how he should drive.

“Trains should not be run on definite schedules. Passengers then could notify friends at their destination that they may be expected some time between five and seven o-clock, provided nothing happens to delay them; but not to worry if they do not turn up by eight o'clock.

“Occasional freight trains should be permitted to bar the tracks for miles at a time and only unwillingly permit passenger trains to pass. They should pull over when another train is approaching in the opposite direction, so that the passenger train can escape a serious collision by the skin of its teeth.

“Passengers should be surrounded by baggage of all kinds, thus forcing them to sit in cramped and uncomfortable positions.

“In wet weather some arrangement should be made whereby a train would have the opportunity to skid and come up against a telegraph pole …

And who can say but that it might succeed?”