FAST AND HEAVY RAILWAY SERVICE. 220 
and depreciation are increased by using more locomotives 
for the same service. In point of fact for passenger serv- 
ice alone the cost per passenger handled would be nearly 
doubled by doubling the number of trains. If at the same 
time the running time were to be quickened there would 
be a still further increase of cost. ILargely increased total 
traffic gives the only opportunity of squaring accounts. 
In this heavy local work electric traction has very 
great advantages. ‘The distances are usually moderate, 
so that all the power can be easily distributed from one or 
two power houses. The service too, is so dense that the 
station can be kept well loaded a large part of the time, and 
consequently working at a high plant efficiency. Hence the 
total efficiency of the power supply is great, while the abso- 
lute amount of power required is considerably less with elec- 
trics than with locomotives, since the former do not have 
to carry their power stations upon their backs. The re- 
sults of actual competition have shown the desirability of 
electric working for suburban passenger traffic, and the 
character of the service to be given is tolerably obvious. 
It is necessary for the railway company to take advantage 
of the weak points of its competitors. FElectric street rail- 
ways have the advantage in the matter of termini and 
cover their field thoroughly. In speed, however, they are 
necessarily somewhat deficient and are liable to blockades 
causing very annoying delays. 
Hence it should be the object of a competing railway 
by running frequent trains at high speeds to gain 
enough time for its passengers amply to compensate them 
for the time lost in walking at the ends of their route. 
It is specially necessary to retain the advantage at moder- 
ate distances, say, up to five miles from the center of the 
city, for here the competition is the most severe. Fre- 
quent express trains, while very useful in extending the 
exterior service, cannot regain the traffic lost within the 
effective sphere of the street railway. 
The electrical problem is then to provide frequent 
trains capable of accommodating one or two hundred people