If Not This, What?

The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission is reported to be considering a plan notably different from one presented its project director, Arthur W. Page.

The new plan is said to follow Mr. Page's idea for a loop system connecting with New Jersey railroads and crossing the Hudson at the Battery and at 59th St. But instead of using the BMT as the Manhattan link, as Mr. Page suggested, the revised plan calls for digging a new subway.

The cost would be half a billion dollars, 100 million more than for the Page project, and the annual deficit would be 14½ million, 2½ million more than he estimated.

The reaction has been uniformly unfavorable on both sides of the Hudson. Critics call it "disappointing," "wasteful" and "monstrous."

The commission denies it has made any decision and since the Page plan met a hostile reception, it is difficult to understand why the commission should propose an even more costly alternative.

On several counts, both the Page plan and the new alternative do not appear to be politically or economically feasible. But in dismissing them we do not dismiss the problem they are designed to solve.

The metropolitan area cannot move many more daily commuters into Manhattan by motor vehicle. Even if New York had enough street and parking space, thousands live so far from their offices that they must travel by railroad.

But the railroads are getting out of the unprofitable commuter business as fast as they can. The Long Island Railroad had to have a drastic reorganization and the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad is bankrupt.

But the need for rapid transit remains. If the commission does not come up with an acceptable answer, somebody must, sooner or later. — Newark Evening News.