LIRR Head Bids For Tri-State Transport Unit

By Francis Wood

New York—Thomas M. Goodfellow, president of the Long Island Rail Road, said yesterday that creation of a tri-state transportation authority with the power and resources to plan and coordinate all commuter travel—was the only solution to the growing traffic mess in the metropolitan area.

Goodfellow said the time had "long since passed" when the transportation problem could be handled on a “piecemeal, hit-or-miss basis.” He urged the formation by the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut of an over-all, three-state authority to tackle commuter travel on an “area-wide, comprehensive basis” with all forms of transportation accorded “equal treatment” in the master plan. “A workable program (to avoid commuter chaos) must not only transcend city, county and state lines,” said Goodfellow, “but party lines as well.” He said he thought the only hope for the creation of a super agency was to “say it often enough.”

Goodfellow’s recommendation came at the end of an address to a luncheon meeting of the Municipal Forum of New York, during which he said rail commuter service could not be run as a “self-supporting, profit-making business” under present conditions. “Rail commuter service must be recognized and treated for what it is—a public service,” said Goodfellow. “Its problems must have the same treatment given to vehicular traffic problems.” He said some persons would refer to this as “subsidization” of the railroads but he preferred to call it “equalization.”

Doesn’t Favor Rail Link

The concept of a tri-state transportation authority has been advanced a number of times in recent years by individuals and planning groups. But the idea has never gotten past the talking stage. The most recent plan for an integrated, tri-state transit system was made last month by Col. Sidney Bingham, a Manhattan engineer who is a former chairman of the New York City Board of Transportation. Bingham’s plan for a high-speed rail network in the metropolitan area was greeted with silence and apathy by officials of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Goodfellow, asked if he favored Bingham’s idea, said he didn’t approve of linking rail lines in the tri-state area but did agree that there was a need for a tri-state planning agency to coordinate rail, bus, subway and auto traffic.

Goodfellow, in his speech, repeatedly criticized the emphasis placed on highway construction in the metropolitan area without corresponding concern for commuter-rail problems.

So far as the LIRR is concerned, Goodfellow said it would continue to strive for improved, faster service for Long Islanders. He said the line was studying ways of cutting commuting time on its branches, particularly from Suffolk County areas. “We’d like to build a steel thruway to the city,” he said, “so we can entice all the commuters we can from the highways. We need dollars to do this, of course.”

Goodfellow said he thought the spiral of wage and cost increases would continue and that there appeared to be no solution to that problem.