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Show 410 PASSENGER TRAINS TAKEN OFFJAILWAYS Locomotives Will Be Used to Haul Coal and Otherwise Other-wise Relieve the Fesght Congestion in East. CHAIR CARS MAY BE CUT OUT ENTIRELY Director General McAdoo Makes Public Demurrage Rules; Issues Appeal to Shippers and Citizens. By D. M. EDWARDS, International News Service Staff Correspondent. By I international News Service. WASHINGTON. Jan. (i. More than 400 passenger trains have been taken out of service in the northeastern quarter of the country up to midnight tonight, according accord-ing to estimates made at the office of the director general of railroads from incomplete figures received. The Pennsylvania system has dropped more than 125 passenger trains, the New llaven SC-, the Baltimore & Ohio t0, the. New York Central 60, and other loads varying numbers, from five to twenty-five, twenty-five, according to the character of their service. Some of the others which curtailed cur-tailed greatly between noon of yesterday and midnight tonight are the Philadelphia & Reading, the Erie, the Delaware & Hudson, Hud-son, the Delaware, Lackawanna &. Western, West-ern, the New Jersey Central, the New York, Ontario & Western, the Boston & Maino and the Boston &. Albany. Locomotives relieved by the cutting off of these trains will be turned to the hauling haul-ing of coal and generally relieving the freight congestion. Few Chair Cars. Xo more passenger trains will be cut off in the immediate future, but the director di-rector general may make a further ruling rul-ing in the number of chair cars allotted to some trains which he conceded yesterday. yester-day. He said he would allow four to some trains, but in all likelihood this will be reduced to a single chair ear on some trains to accommodate 111 persons or the I feeble. On nearly all of the trains the j chair car will be cut out entirely. One ! of the chief causes for confusion and complaint at the railroad stations lias been brought about by the chair car situation. sit-uation. When trains have been cancelled persons holding chair tickets were told to take the next train with their tickets. Duplication and endless squabbles ensued. Other passengers have complained of favoritism in obtaining seats, being refused re-fused seats at the station when they said they knew tickets were being sold uptown. up-town. Mr. McAdoo will take definite and immediate steps to abolish this nuisance and make it impossible for anyone to ob- ' tain an advantage In travel. Demurrage Rules. Director General McAdoo tonight made puMie the demurrage rules, regulations and charges which he announced generally gener-ally last night. The rules are effective j January 21, and follow: 1 Forty-eight hours free time for load- I Ing or unloading on- all commodities. j 2 Twenty-four hours free time on cars I held for any other purpose permitted by j tariff. 3 Demurrage charges per car per day I or fraction of a day a car is released as! follows: j Three dollars for the first day; J4 for: the second and for each succeeding add!- i tlonal day charges to be increased 51 in exi-Hss of that for tho preceding day until , a maximum charge of $10 per car per day shall be reached the eighth day of detention beyond free time, the charge thereafter to be per car per day or fraction thereof. These charges will supersede su-persede all those named in existing tariffs tar-iffs applicable. io domestic freight", and specifically contempla le the cancellation of all average agreement provisions of. e.Nistiutr' tariffs. j Xo change is authorized hereby to be ; made in demurrage rates, regulations ana; charges applying un foreign exj-ort await- 1 hit: ships at export point?. Must File Tariffs. L'pon request of the director general the interstate commerce commission has issued an order authorizing the riling of tariffs to accord with this order to be-ronif be-ronif effective January rt on one riav's notice. Thp railroads must immediately rile their tariffs with ih anpropriare stale commissions or other authorities. In explaining the ne -s-itv tor such a demurrage eharcrp Mr, McAdoo said: "An imperative necessity exists for releasing re-leasing freight cars for further service and for relieving t-.ravmals whkh are now badly congested. These unfavorable conditions con-ditions are injuriously afiecting tht government's gov-ernment's conduct of the war, its aid to the allies and the supplying of tuel. food and necessaries for our own people. "On these accounts T have feit compelled com-pelled to issu an order providing for heavy it Terence in demuna- charge unless cars are Iadd and unloaded with promptness. In making this oi.h.-r I hav fully considered t h pui harass merits f shippers and consignees on account of the (Continued on Paso Two.) 400 TRUKS TAKEH OFF EASTERN IK (Continued from Page One.) scarcity of labor, the inclement, weather, weath-er, the irregularity of transportation and the consequent t'requent bunching of cars. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the total Inconvenience and hardship on these accounts will be far smaller than the inconvenience- and hardship which our people peo-ple aa a whole are suffering on account of the undue tying up of railroad equipment, equip-ment, and will be very small indeed compared com-pared with the menace which the widespread wide-spread tving up of equipment causes to the health and comfort of the people and the successful conduct of our war operations." opera-tions." Appeals to Shippers. Mr. McAdoo appeals to the shippers and citizens to employ every effort to load and unload the cars as speedily as pos- 81 Telegraphic reports from A, H. Smith, In charge of transportation of the north-: north-: east section of the country, said accumu- latlons were increasing at points east of j Pittsburg and Buffalo, due to extreme cold weather. Trainmen and enginemen have reported sick in large numbers, necessitating ne-cessitating curtailment of train service. The passenger service is being reduced wherever possible, but Mr. Smith says that as a great many people are returning re-turning home after the holidays, considerable consider-able service is still required. A shortage of labor at engine house terminals ia preventing pre-venting locomptives from being turned and getting back into service promptly. The tonnage ratings of trains have been reduced on account of the cold, to expert ex-pert i te transportation of coal and foodstuffs. food-stuffs. Labor Situation Acute. , "A heavy fog throughout the Pittsburg district, accompanied by low temperature," tempera-ture," savs Mr. Smith, "is greatly interfering inter-fering with switching operations and train movements, which, with the shortage short-age of labor, causes loss of ground there. The labor situation iu the Pittsburg district dis-trict is acute." v Bringing out clearly the advantage of using motor trucks to augment the freight service, the war department announces the successful trip from Detroit to the Atlantic seaboard off the first United States quartermaster motor truck train. Beginning next Thursday, the department will start motor truck trains each day from Detroit to the seaboard. Each truck carries two tons of supplies. Weather conditions were bad, but improved on the latter stage. |