Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1916 — AUTOS AND RAILROADS [ARTICLE]

AUTOS AND RAILROADS

In a considerable number of annual reports of railroad presidents in the last two years mention has ibeen made of inroads which automobiles are making on railroad passenger business. There is another aspect, however, of the development of the automobile and automobile truck which may turn out to be of considerable advantage to railroad development. The use of the automobile and the automobile truck is acting as a preventive of branch line railroad building, thus conserving capital for betterments to existing lines. A good road is built by the state or county, and this road, with the development of the automobile truck, acts as a feeder for the railroads which it crosses and, moreover, a feeder built with the public’s capital and not the railroad company’s capital. Unprofitable branch line mileage has been the old man of the sea on the back of many a railroad in this country. A good state or county road crossing a railroad will be a feeder to it for forty or fifty miles on either side of the track. At the present time there are many rural communities which are sending freight and passengers over forty miles or more of good road to the ndhrest railroad by automobile—as much traffic as the railroad could hope to get over a branch line, the interest charges on which would be great enough to eat up nearly all the profit on the line haul.—Railway Gazette.