Summit County Labor News

DECREASE IN PASSENGER TRAIN SERVICE IS HIT

New legislation is necessary to end "wholesale discontinuance of passenger train service" both Democratic and Republican members of Congress said in an interview on Washington Reports to the People, AFL-CIO public service program heard on more than 300 radio stations.

Senator Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and sponsor of a major bill on the issue has gained 30 co-sponsors. He and Senator George D. Aiken (R-Vt.) agreed that the chances of passage in this session are good.

"I believe we have a majority," Magnuson said. He noted that the House was acting on a similar bill.

The Magnuson bill would correct a situation created by the l958 Transportation Act in giving the railroads power to apply either to state public service commissions or the Interstate Commerce Commission for discontinuance (Continued on Page Two)
Train Service (Continued from Page One)

of a rail line the roads claimed was not needed or was losing money.

"We didn't intend at the time that the roads should go so far as to inconvenience the public to the extent that they have." Aiken declared. "I think something like 102 trains have been discontinued in the last year or two and we are now seeing unfairness to the public."

The 1958 law puts the burden of proof for continuance on the public.

"This new law would place the burden of proof upon the railroad," Magnuson explained. "They would have to prove discontinuance is not against the public interest.

"Also a section of the bill says that if and when the ICC tells a railroad to continue a line, the commission also has authority to say what kind of service there should be. At the present, the railroads are running some branch lines with trains like cattle cars."

Aiken observed, "there are certain roads in this country that seem to be trying to discontinue passenger service by inconveniencing the public who would normally travel on trains."

"The roads were in financial trouble in 1956 and 1957," Magnuson said, "but a lot of them have come back a great deal and conditions are better. Many railroads don't want to separate their passenger income and to make a case on passenger income separate from their freight income, and to make a case on passenger discontinuance, assert they are losing money on a road.

"I always ask them, 'Are you losing money on your overall operation? You have a public duty to provide passenger trains. The public pays for your freight, too.' "

Aiken declared that railroad service should be supplied rural as well as urban areas. "Service is even more important in the rural areas," he said.

Magnuson in effect warned the ICC to go slow in handling applications for passenger train discontinuance. "The ICC is a creation of Congress," he said. "They should slow up until we can see what's going on."