Chapter 19: Financial Statement

Rapid Transit in New York City and in the Other Great Cities · Chamber of Commerce, 1906

Cost of Work Done. The following statements show the amounts expended by the Rapid Transit Railroad Commission from the time of its creation by the Act of 1894 to January 1, 1905:

This latter item represents a construction cost of about $4,114,413, as the contract price was only about 20 per cent. of the actual cost of doing the work.

Yearly Expenditures. The total yearly expenditures for regular and extra work have been as follows:

In the following table are presented the disbursements of the Commission during yearly periods from 1894 to January 1, 1905. It will be observed that the expenses of the administrative and general office were $299,278 and the legal expenses $290,714. The total expense of the engineering department, including all salaries, office rent and expenses, instruments and supplies, amounted to only $2,106,870, or the remarkably small proportion of 5 per cent. of the total expenditure of the Commission. In this expenditure is included work done in the preparation of plans not yet executed, in studies for the Brooklyn Bridge terminals, and for other objects not connected with either Contract No. 1 or No. 2, and which may justly be considered as outside work.

General Fund, 1894-1904, Disbursements. Total amount of disbursements made under the direction of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners during the period from 1894 to 1904:

Corporate Stock, 1894-1904, Manhattan-Bronx Construction Fund. Total amount of proceeds credited of the Corporate Stock issued by The City of New York for the construction of the Manhattan-Bronx Rapid Transit Railroad during the period of:

Brooklyn-Manhattan Construction Fund. Total amount of proceeds credited of the Corporate Stock issued by The City of New York for the construction of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Rapid Transit Railroad during the period of:

Construction Funds, 1894-1904, Disbursements, Manhattan-Bronx Construction Fund. Total amount of disbursements made in the construction of the Manhattan-Bronx Rapid Transit Railroad during the period:

Brooklyn-Manhattan Construction Fund. Total amount of disbursements made in the construction of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Rapid Transit Railroad during the period:

Summary of Disbursements, 1894-1904.

Passenger Travel During First Year. The subway was opened for business October 27, 1904. During the first few days the road was crowded with curiosity travel, the total for five days being 1,294,000, or a daily average of 258,800. From that time the traffic fell to a minimum for a week day of 172,288 on November 10. From this minimum there was a steady and substantially even increase as the public became acquainted with the road, so that the daily average travel for November, including Sundays, was 205,030. The growth continued during December, on the last day of which 358,566 passengers were carried; the daily average for the month was 283,773. No railroad had ever before shown such a traffic at the end of two months after its opening. During the entire year the subway carried an average of about 300,000 passengers each day. The stations ranked in the following order in the amount of business done: Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central, Fourteenth street, Fulton street, and Times Square.

The other transportation lines in the Borough of Manhattan, while losing somewhat as the result of the opening of the new line, did not lose anything like the total travel shown on the subway. It is evident that the new facilities created new travel. This new travel is largely due to the convenience of the combined local and express service. The local trains are used largely as collecting and distributing trains for the expresses, many local train passengers alighting at each express station, their places being taken by others coming from the express trains and who are to be discharged at the local stations.

As was to be expected, the Brooklyn Bridge station has done the largest business. This station absorbed all the travel south of the bridge during the first few months; but much of this was diverted after the opening of the stations on the Broadway extension to the Battery.