A Private Subway

The businessmen of Fort Worth--like those in many another U.S. city--watched in dismay as traffic congestion clogged downtown streets and customers fled to the suburbs. At their behest the city hired Architect-Planner Victor Gruen to redesign the downtown area, but Gruen's elaborate plan proved to cost more than the city fathers were prepared to pay. Then a downtown mall was tried, but planners failed to provide enough convenient parking space; in the Texas long hot summer, the few potted trees they installed did little to shade the wide concrete expanse, and business declined. But Marvin and Obediah Leonard, who own Leonards, the biggest department store in town, refused to move to the suburbs.

"Let them put up the sideshows anywhere they want," said Marvin Leonard. ''They'll still want to come into the main tent, and this is it." The Leonards set out to solve the problem on their own. And last week they proudly opened a private, mile-long, $500,000 underground subway, running between parking lot and store.

Leonards, which sprawls over four city blocks, sells items ranging from barn siding to $1.99 ''Ivy League Pants." Several years ago, the Leonards bought a big parking lot for 5,000 cars on the bank of the Trinity River and began experimenting with free bus rides from it to the store. The buses lured customers back, but provided a slow and hot ride. Obediah thought of a subway. The Leonards acquired five old Washington, D.C., streetcars, spiffed them up with stainless steel and new seats, installed air conditioning, and carved a double-track tunnel between store and Jot: This week the M (for Marvin) & O (for Obediah) subway--"the first subway south of the Mason-Dixon line"--began service, delivering as many as 500 passengers every 3 1/2 minutes to the store's basement. Price per ride: nothing.

In fact, anybody can ride free. There is no charge for parking in the store's lot. not even a ticket to be "validated at the time of a store purchase." Even though the store does not open until 9 a.m., the subway will begin carrying early-morning commuters at 7:30; at the very least, the Leonards hope to grab off some of the passengers for popcorn or a hot dog at the subway-station snack bar. ''We're dang poor merchants.'' drawls Obie Leonard, ''if we can't sell them something while we've got them here."

Actually, the expense is not as high as it might seem. Adds Obie: "The whole shebang--lot, tunnel, subway cars, the works--costs us only about $200 per parking space." Other downtown merchants, anticipating the Leonards' bringing customers painlessly into the area, have begun sprucing up their own store fronts to attract as many as they can. The Leonards don't mind, since they have first crack at riders of their private subway.

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