Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/66

NEW IDEALS IN THE PLANNING OF because coupled with Issues which, though ultimately desirable, are not essential to the immediate betterment. It should be an accepted fact that the plans for railroad development should, so far as possible, present ultimate conditions. The recommended layout should be such as to insure the maximum benefit to the community at large. It is therefore incumbent upon the engineer to specify the progressive steps necessary to put the plan into action. In this regard the weakness of many plans is apparent. The ultimate layout may be complete, but failure to suggest the successive stages often leaves the plan to be digested as a whole, and its practicability is much more difficult to establish.

The main divisions of the problem of the railroads are: (a) provision for passenger traffic—the means of carrying present and future generations safely, cheaply, conveniently and quickly; and (b) provision for freight—the means of handling with dispatch and economy foodstuffs, manufactured products and raw materials for local delivery, shipment or transshipment.

The importance of study of the railroad problem in connection with general city planning is due partly to the need of plans for effective ultimate consolidation, following independent development and extension by competing interests. The essential needs are, first, to provide a flexible and enduring system which shall represent the best type of public service; and second, to introduce economies of management, operation and maintenance of the properties not usually possible under independent control, thus making for more efficient service and lower rates.

The railroads have been called the framework of the city plan, and their importance has been ably discussed in papers by George R. Wadsworth, formerly Consulting Engineer to the Boston Metropolitan Improvements Commis-