A Model of Inefficiency

U.S. management is supposed to be able to solve almost any business problem once it is identified. That is certainly not the case with the commuter railroads of the East, which have been going from bad to horrendous. Private enterprise has little interest in keeping up the money-losing commuter service.

A Philadelphia city official charges that the Penn-Central, for example, has no budget for maintaining the 248 cars that haul 32,500 riders daily into that city. The railroad denies it, but is un able to supply any budget figures. Bos ton's creaky commuter lines -- the New Haven and the Boston & Maine -- re quire huge state subsidies to run at all.

Last week the Massachusetts legislature appropriated $4.8 million to keep the roads rolling for another year.

For some railroads, the only solution seems to be outright government own ership of the commuter lines. So far, though, that has not worked either. The nation's biggest commuter line, the Long Island Rail Road, was taken over by New York State in 1966. Today the L.I.R.R. is in the worst trouble of all.

Commuters refer to the road as the Toonerville Trolley, and many have taken to wearing buttons that proclaim, "I hate the L.I.R.R."

Ambition's Reward. Since June, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (M.T.A.), which runs the road, has canceled ten to 15 trains a day. Those that do run are usually dirty, intolerably crowded--the L.I.R.R. hauls 160,000 people a day--and often unbelievably late. It is not unknown for a 40-mile trip to take three hours. In the last two months, the L.I.R.R. has had three accidents, in which 175 riders were injured. An M.T.A. executive admits that "The damn railroad is falling apart." Eugene Nickerson, the chief administrator of Long Island's populous Nassau County, last week asked President Nixon to declare Long Island a disaster area eligible for federal funds to improve L.I.R.R. service.

The troubles stem largely from an ambitious M.T.A. effort to make the Long Island a model commuter railroad. Using $132 million in state and federal money, the agency set out two years ago to re-equip the line with 620 fast, air-conditioned Budd Co. cars. Deliveries, which began last fall, have lagged 25 weeks behind schedule, and the cars have developed many bugs. Every day, more than half of the 94 cars accepted so far have been out of service because of mechanical breakdowns. The flashy Budd cars that do run have become prime targets for rock-throwing and BB-shooting vandals in the slums that trains pass through.

Union leaders charge that the M.T.A. in the past year scrapped 175 old cars that it badly needs now to maintain service; the M.T.A. replies that the cars were beyond repair. A conductor recently explained the passenger crush on a rush-hour train by saying: "We are one car short of normal--and normal is two cars short of what we are supposed to have."

Management also has endless trouble with most of the 17 unions that represent 6,500 employees. M.T.A. officials feel that the old private owners of the L.I.R.R. allowed the unions to run the railroad and perpetuate featherbedding. Union men fear that the M.T.A. intends to eliminate jobs. A legacy of labor-management bitterness has been left by a slowdown last summer in the Dunton car-repair shop, which has never returned to its old operating pace, and a week of wildcat strikes and slowdowns that greeted the introduction of a new timetable last fall. One commuter recently phoned for train information and was told by a recorded voice that his call was being held for the next available clerk. In the background a live voice snarled: "I am not the next available clerk, goddammit."

New Boss. The M.T.A. has also been caught in a political dispute between the Republican state administration and Democrat Nickerson, who yearns to run for Governor. The county pays less than one-third of the $1.8 million that the M.T.A. bills it annually for station maintenance. Nickerson contends that the bills are unconstitutional. The railroad could use the money. It is losing more than $1,000,000 a month. The M.T.A. is suing Nassau County in state courts for the unpaid bills.

M.T.A. officials vow that, given time, they can yet turn the ragged line into a modern system. That is possible; the Budd cars are a joy to ride in, when they are working. But the immediate prospect is for more trouble. Last week the M.T.A. pushed L.I.R.R. President Frank Aikman Jr. into early retirement, provoking charges from many commuters that Aikman is being made a scapegoat for the mistakes of Dr. William J. Ronan, the M.T.A. chairman, who is staying on. Aikman was replaced by Walter L. Schlager Jr., an executive from the New York City subway system. Harold J. Pryor, the verbose head of four L.I.R.R. union locals, warned that he would give Schlager 15 days to improve labor-management relations. Was he making another of his many strike threats? Could be, said Pryor.

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