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The railroad continued during 1946 the policy of making huge expenditures to buy better and more convenient tools for us to work with and to make our service more attractive to the traveling and shipping public.
Outstanding among the 1946 improvements was the acquisition of 18 diesel-electric freight locomotives, and 14 diesel-electric passenger locomotives. The transformation of freight and passenger power from steam to diesel represents, thus far, an investment by your company of $15,361,673 in new locomotives alone. In addition to this investment there are, of course, the costs involved in building and equipping the new Diesel Terminal now under construction at Somerville, and the already completed Diesel Shop at Mechanicville, as well as new tools, equipment and installations made at Billerica Shops to service the diesel engines.
After several years of costly experimentation the management authorized the installation of radio to improve control of switching movements and as a result the hump-yard tower at Mechanicville and five switching engines are being equipped with two-way radio to speed up and improve yard handling.
In 1946 we carried two million fewer passengers than we did in 1945. Passenger revenue for 1946 amounted to approximately 16 million dollars. This was 13% less than passenger revenue in 1945 but approximately double that of 1941. This indicates that thus far, at least, we have held a large amount of the passenger traffic which came to us during the war and emphasizes the importance of every employee and official doing everything they can to make traveling by train pleasant for our patrons. Commuters showed an increase of over a million tickets, reflecting school attendance by returned veterans, and, to some extent, the increasingly bad traffic and parking conditions in Boston. The commuting increase was despite the growth of the 5-day work week in many business houses and factories and a necessary reduction in our Saturday fleet of commuter trains.
The Industrial Department was especially active during 1946 with an eye towards making sure that everything possible is done to insure continued new traffic for our road, to replace the wartime traffic. In 1946 a total of 173 new industries were located on our road. The total of new accounts secured in 1946 is expected to produce for us, eventually, about 25,000 cars of freight a year.
With 1946 out of the way and the first quarter of 1947 already passed, we may well take a look at our prospects for this year.
Sometime this month, or early in May, we shall receive the first of the new cars which will be placed in service on the runs of the Flying Yankee, the Pine Tree and the Kennebec between Boston and Portland, and beyond on the Maine Central to Bangor. This two million dollars worth of new equipment - half of it Boston and Maine and the other half Maine Central - should result not only in keeping the passenger patronage we have at the present time but should enable us to attract more business away from competing forms of transportation. Such traits as courtesy and cleanliness are going to play a most important part in determining who gets the major share of the shipping and traveling public’s patronage from now on. A little more on-the-ball attitude by some of us would result in far more business for all of us.
People today don’t HAVE to ride on or ship over the Boston and Maine Railroad. Let’s all determine that in 1947 we’ll make our service so excellent and our standards of courtesy and cleanliness so high that the public will WANT to travel and ship via the Boston and Maine Railroad.