| A story of George Alpert, the last president of the New Haven Railroad. |
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George Alpert and Albert Einstein (1947, Brandeis University) |
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Welcome to our George Alpert WebSite
Here's a preview of some of the exciting projects we have put together for you: Our feature article: George Alpert, the last president of the New Haven Railroad Could George have saved the New Haven? New England Gateway: the New Alphabet Route Alpert-era Photos Who do I call to move my Freight??? Take a quiz on Which One of These People Hurt New York City the Worst? We hope you enjoy your visit to our WebSite. We offer a wide range of great sites. We have a great "Portal to the World", excellent weather, reference, golf and tourist sites. As well as great WebSites on trains run for the President of the United States (and for Royalty too). We are not "FLASHy" like many WebSites, but we offer you, among other things authentic railroad history material. Much of this material is not available elsewhere on the Internet. It was painstakingly collected over many years from such sources as Yale University. We never knowingly link you to any WebSites that contain a virus, collect your personal information, or are those machine-generated sites rampant with "Ads by Google". For some of our material, there is a small nominal charge. You can talk back to us on our BLOG and see our eBay Store too. |
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Victoria Station was a restaurant, not a railroad station. Other railroad-related restaurants in Connecticut: Yankee Silversmith Inn / Restaurant has the "Silversmith Parlour Car", an old coach or dining car which serves as part of the dining room. Right on Rt 5 in Wallingford, off the Wilbur Cross Pkwy. The car at the Yankee Silversmith restaurant in Wallingford CT was originally a Philadelphia & Reading coach. It later was purchased by the Belfast & Moosehead Lake, and from there it came to Wallingford I think during the 1960s. Pizzaworks in Old Saybrook is housed in the former Saybrook freight house (relocated slightly from a different track alignment years ago). They have trains running around and part of the old canopy/platform visible inside. Amtrak station is about 20 feet north of the restaurant and the platforms 20 feet south. Trains go flying by at nearly 100 mph. In Cromwell CT there is a seasonal ice cream stand in an ex Amtrak, exx PC, exxx PRR steel caboose, no number available. Find out more on the train stations (and former stations) of Connecticut. |
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Now you can see the entire NICE, FRANCE TRAMWAY in GOOGLE EARTH!!!! | Yes! Open in Google Earth and follow the path of the Tramway station-by station. |
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George Alpert, the last president of the New Haven Railroad died in September, 1988
at the age of 90 at his home in Cohasset, Mass. He was president of the New Haven
Railroad from 1956 to 1961 when the carrier went into bankruptcy.
Several months after he left the railroad, the Interstate Commerce Commission
made public its opinion that primarily passenger railroads, such as the
New Haven, must have federal subsidies to exist.
This view had long been held by Alpert and he had testified several times before
the ICC on the subject.
REGISTER to see full story. |
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| Could George have saved the New Haven??? |
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This is an on-going discussion.
Information is collected from a variety of sources. Yes, you can contribute to. Either e-mail us or visit our blog. There are no "right or wrong answers" |
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George Alpert had it right. He said that the government must be
involved to save the New Haven Railroad.
In the 1950's and 1960's, the railroad was considered old fashion and the government was putting all its monies into air and highway travel. The tendency to want to bail out a railroad was pretty low, although that did happen with the Long Island. The Long Island had the advantage of being entirely within NY State. The trustees had to either return the railroad to profitability, palm it off on the government or other group seeking to lose money or liquidate. Yes the trustees could have pushed for government take over, but that would have been tough. Essentially 4 states would have to agree to purchase, own and operate in a climate that was still more capitalistically oriented for solutions and not enamoured with railroads. If the liquidation route were taken, the states of Connecticut and New York might have acquired the NY City commuter routes with no interest in running freights, the P&W would have come about 4 years earlier and MAYBE the MBTA would have acquired the 3 non-Old Colony lines. I suspect that there would be shut-downs of lines like happened with the Rutland, with some routes not returning to service. If things happened quick enough, the shoreline could have been abandoned between New Haven and the Massachusetts line, not to mention others. Perhaps there could have been operations assigned to other railroads (designated operators): B&M, CV, PC, LHR & EL. Now there's a bunch of power houses! Everybody was in bad shape. Who would pay for DO's and how much interest would there be? What might have worked would have been cutting the NH into logical chunks and selling off the portions outside of the passenger mains. Package deals with the railroad, rolling stock and employees readily available. It might have been interesting. Looking at the outcome, that's essentially what happened. Some other questions/observations -if the New Haven Trustees had not decided several years earlier (when many railroad experts still thought Penn Central would be a success) that merger was their preferred option, and if they had pressed harder for the alternative, some sort of government support.... NH survival as a subsidized entity might have been possible. -if government officials in the federal, Connecticut and New York governments had acted faster. The problem had been studied to death. The general costs and options were known. -if other options, such as the 1967 proposal by a group of Chicago finance men to set up a joint governmental-private corporation to run the New Haven had been explored. The actual timetable is interesting. Jan 1, 1969: NH became part of Penn Central October 1969: Basic outline of deal by states of NY and CT to buy the line arranged with Penn Central November 25, 1969: Deal announced January 1, 1971: NY and CT takeover implemented We must consider that politicians also had to respond to voting commuters and local businesses. Faced with an actual shut down, there might have been swifter action. -In many parts of the US, there was less interest in helping railroads. But in this case, the Senators from NY and CT were active in securing federal support. Gov. Rockefeller of NY had a very proactive style of dealing with transportation issues and had taken over the LIRR, organized the MTA and within ten months of the New Haven's demise had agreed to a takeover of its commuter lines. This might have happened earlier if NY and CT had been quicker to agree. There were viable examples of multi-state public agencies. The Port of New York Authority NY-NJ is one. The four state Delaware River compact is another. Such models were not adequately explored. The MTA-CDOT marriage was hastily and imperfectly arranged. A true Authority, with jurisdiction over the whole road, and separate operating agreements with each local state would have been more efficient than the piecemeal solutions which emerged. The public, which couldn't afford to save the New Haven, eventually spent much more money trying to pick up the pieces. In short, the damage had already been done when George took the throttle. He did what he could with toning down the puff and paint, and possibly he could have done more with reversal of the electric motive power and infrastructure phase-out before Trustees II came on the property. But George recognized that the only way any passenger service would be economically viable was with public funding and I believe he worked to that end - especially since he represented a road from which some 40% of the revenue came from handling passengers. What could George have done about it in 1956???? 1 Not have purchased the 1956 road diesel or the FL9's 2 Take delivery of the EMD SW1200s and high speed trains. 3 Stop the repainting process and throw out the previous management advisors. 4 Countiue to use the electric powered engines. 5 The money that would be saved from not purchasing of the new diesel and FL9s would put back into the upkeep of the railroad. 6 Stop all passenger service were the goverments would allow. Cancelled all passenger service on the Old Colony route as soon as possible. 7 Try to find out a way to figure out how to serve the remaining indusries better and scrap all excess boxcars and try and increase TOFC service and try and make all freight service speedier and quicker to try and boost revenue. Another idea might have been to merge with the B&M, D&H, LHRR and possibly the EL. That would open up direct routes to northern New England, northern and western New York, and connections to the West. An interesting scenario would have been that if the judge ruled out inclusion in Penn Central, the New Haven would 1) get ICC permission to sell off all branchlines, except those with regular commuter service, to investors or whomever to raise cash to maintain remaining operations, 2) lines get sold off to MTA, CDOT & MBTA, 3) Amtrak takes over intercity trains and 4) Amtrak later puchases their routes. The NH would only own yard facilities and trackage rights NYC to Boston and NH to Springfield along with whatever rolling stock that would have been retained. Basic Assumptions What would the New Haven RR be like if it was still around today? We need to make some basic assumptions: That the New Haven was not put into Penn Central (obviously, else the whole point is moot), nor was it put into Conrail. Amtrak would still have been formed in 1971, taking over long distance passenger operations on the North East Corridor (NEC). The MBTA, M-N, C-DOT, etc. communter agencies would all be more or less the same as now. P&W, however, would not exist as a seperate entity. Many of the shortlines would still exist, as the New Haven spun off lines to remain afloat. But the longest hauls and marginably profitable lines would still be NH controlled. The car floats and the Poughkeepsie bridge just might remain (possibly just one of them). After all the New York Cross Harbor is still around. An important clarification is would have the Shore Line been sold to Amtrak and CDOT? If the answer is affirmative, then there would not be a New Haven. Another opinion of George: The BIGGEST Culprit is poor old George Alpert carrying on the deadly policies of the prior administration. George had the chance to be a star and he blew it but most of the talent was gone by that time anyway. Yes, TOFC and the Express business could have saved the NH. The passengers were losing money from 1952 even though they made up the largest part of revenues the margin was paper thin. Had the reality of state sponsored commuter operation been done in 1958 as Alpert said they should be rather than 1968 it might have been a different story but NOT TO HAPPEN in those automobile-obsessed times. "We had to destroy the village to save it!" ??? Foreign policy or railroading??? Read more on this topic under a discussion of "What if the New Haven never merged with Penn Central?" |
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Monte Carlo Grand Prix is about the most famous race in the World.
The Casino is magical and crowded with the most famous and richest people in the world. All of them gather for one of
the major events of the year: the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, which takes place in the streets of the city.
The nights are marvelous: charity dinner or gala organized by the Grimaldi family in its Palace, dancing in night-clubs
such as The Living Room, gambling in the Casino.
SEE Monte Carlo and Monaco |
| In an article from the November 23, 1959 issue of TIME Magazine: "The necessity of employing firemen on freight and yard diesels costs the New Haven over $3,500,000 a year," says George Alpert, president of the New Haven Railroad. The story was about the many abuses railroads felt they were getting because of obsolete laws and labor agreements. Under obsolete rules, a train crew gets a full day's pay for every 100 miles traveled, and conductors and trainmen on passenger trains for every 150 miles—even though the actual traveling time sometimes takes less than two hours. Some yard crews get a day's pay for moving a train 100 yds. They also want to change the mileage pay rates set 40 years ago when trains traveled at turtle speed. The railroads' chief case is against their 40,000 firemen, who have little or nothing to do in modern diesels. |
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Electric at New Haven
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Approaching Train on Shoreline
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Passing Train on Shoreline
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Train at Back Bay Station
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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New Haven electrified line through Connecticut
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Grand Central train arrival
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Cos Cob power generation control room
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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Electric locomotive loading barge
(Photo clipped from old movies) |
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| Refrigerated car (Photo clipped from old movies) |
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| Caboose (Photo clipped from old movies) |
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This article was published in December 1990 in the CALLBOARD of the Mohawk and Hudson Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society |
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There is no "brrreeeport" in Connecticut, but there are plenty of towns
that are served by freight railroads. Search them out! |
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Signal Stations of the New Haven Railroad |
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Includes New Haven speed limits and trackage rights Also sections on Bridgeport and State Line interchange Click here or on picture to see full story. |
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| What's a "Chicago Bypass"? |
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Why do we need a "Chicago Bypass"? YOU WILL BE SURPRISED!
Click on any doctor above to see why. |
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PinemeadowGolf.com Closeout Specials
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| REFERENCE |
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List of Connecticut Railroads List of Massachusetts Railroads List of Rhode Island Railroads List of New York Railroads New Haven Railroad Northeast Corridor |
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Head End Railway Express and Railway Post Office |
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On passenger trains, railroads operated lots of equipment other than
sleepers, coaches, dining cars, etc. This equipment was generally
called
'head-end' equipment, these 'freight' cars were at one time
plentiful and highly profitable for the railroads.
In the heyday of passenger service, these industries were a big part
of the railroad's operations, and got serious attention. We have text and pictures not found elsewhere on the Web. |
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| Canal Line today through New Haven |
| Connecticut's Farmington Canal was converted to a railroad by 1848. The road was named the New Haven & Northampton, but has always been called the Canal Line. The road's first terminal in New Haven was between Temple Street and Hillhouse Avenue. Click Here or on any of the pictures to read about its history, present and the future | ||
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The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
See some historic photographs of the New Haven Railroad, Steam along the shore line, electrics through Connecticut, passenger runs into Grand Central, and much more. |
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Grand Central was owned by the
New York Central Railroad Do you know who owns Grand Central now? If you said Metro North Railroad, or its parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, then you are wrong. Nor is it Donald Trump, Disney or WalMart. Click here to find the answer and find out a lot of interesting facts. |
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Troop Train Photo Album
Cost is $9.99 Photos of a trip from Texas to New York City (World War II) as an armored division brings its equipment and troops to the port. |
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The Driver's waiting for a fare--notice the "availability" of the cab,
by the white lite-lit Medallion on the cab roof! Is Mass Transit available to you!!! |
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