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Show Streamlined Coaches, Low Fares For U. S. Postwar Train Travelers Officials Plan Moves to Hold Big Share of Passengers J Lightweight Equipment to Replace Heavier Trains! The Iron Horse, a steed of war for the duration, is deter-' mined to become a sleek speedster in the postwar race for traffic, according to a cros3 section of opinion advanced by-more by-more than 20 of the nation's leading railroad executives. These officials predict a new era of railway passenger progress prog-ress after the war and indicate that they intend to fight a real battle to hold a big share of the present record-breaking travel, according ac-cording to Railway Age. A majority of the executives declare de-clare themselves in favor of a considerable con-siderable slash in passenger fares after the war, and some would like to make this cut at once, to cash in on the advertising values of wartime, war-time, rather than to make a series, of small reductions. j Another important point developed by the survey is that present passenger pas-senger equipment is recognized as' being outmoded and plans are be-' ing made to replace most of it with, new modern lightweight equipment' Many of the railroads report that they intend to augment their fleets of coach streamliners materially to add the appeal of frequency of serv- ice to the present advantages of comfort and speed, as compared to highway competition. The survey also indicated that all these improvements will be merchandised mer-chandised properly. This program includes not only better salesmanship, salesman-ship, but also far more effective and voluminous advertising for passenger pas-senger traffic. The railroads' present pres-ent widespread advertising campaigns cam-paigns have convinced them of the effectiveness of this type of salesmanship. sales-manship. Lower Fares Stressed. Throughout the survey the hope for fare reductions is emphasized. As expressed by one executive, "Fares shall be cut to the bone when the war is over." Another official offi-cial voices his agreement by saying, "We cannot hope to stand pat on our present fare structure" and adding that "I ardently hope that they will be lowered immediately, before the railroads have a rhance to empty their trains by incorrect pricing." Still a third executive asserts, "We shall have to reduce rates after the ,w9.t and do it quickly and thoroughly." thorough-ly." This new era of passenger business busi-ness after the war promises to make the streamlined train the rule rather rath-er than the exception. One executive execu-tive in a typical statement says, "We plan to buy streamliners lots of them to take advantage of frequency fre-quency of service between heavilj populated centers." A death knell to the heavier passenger train can be read into another of these statements state-ments which declares, "I see no reason why we should not hold our own afterwards (after the war), by the complete replacement of all our passenger equipment with modern, lightweight cars." The attitude of America's railroads, rail-roads, in so far as postwar competition competi-tion is concerned, is pretty well summed up by one railroad head who declares, "Passenger revenues are so Important to this railroad that we have prepared to tackle postwar competition and fight it tooth and naiL" And he adds, "I am convinced that our competitors, who are gleefully anticipating a walkover walk-over as far as taking traffic away from the railroads is concerned, are in for an unpleasant surprise." |