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Time Magazine Article - December 10, 1945

Time Magazine:  December 10, 1945


 

Why Shouldn't America Have
Through Sleeping Car Service
from Coast to Coast?

Chesapeake & Ohio and the Nickel Plate stand ready to join
with other railroads to start this service without delay!
 
  

   Our American railroad system, for all its fine accomplishments, is woefully inadequate in one important respect.
    The traveler cannot go from one of our coasts to the other by through sleeping car service.  He must break his trip--at Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans.
    Even if he rides the crack trains, he must still change at these points--often with a wait of several hours in between.
    He must put up with the inconvenience of packing and transferring his baggage, often going from one station to another, waiting around for connections, boarding another train.
    He has at least two sleeping car reservations to worry about--when one should suffice.
    He is put to far too much trouble--and far too much waste of time.
 
   
Invisible Line Divides America
Why should travelers have to put up with this?  Why should there be a dividing line beyond which you cannot pass without changing trains?
    Isn't it high time the travelers of this country enjoyed the benefits of through sleeping car service all the way from coast to coast?
    And why shouldn't they get it?  Is it because of the physical problem that would be involved in transferring sleeping cars from one road to another?  Is it because schedules would have to be adjusted to maintain convenient departure and arrival times?
    Surely these problems can be worked out--and should be worked out--in the interest of the traveling public. 

   Who Will Take Action?
The Chesapeake & Ohio and the Nickel Plate Road are not the only railroads that, in conjunction with others, could provide this service.  But no railroad has yet provided it.  And we of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Nickel Plate are willing to make a start.
    In fact we are so convinced that action should be taken, and taken without delay, that we go on record as follows:

 
   
A Concrete Proposal
Chesapeake & Ohio, whose western passenger terminus is Cincinnati, stands ready now to join with any combination of other railroads to set up through sleeping car service from coast to coast on practical scheduled routes.

 
   
The Nickel Plate Road, which runs to Chicago and St. Louis, also stands ready now to join with any combination of roads to set up the same kind of through transcontinental sleeping car service.
 
   
Through sleeping car service is bound to come.  Because it is so much in the public's interest, it is also in the interest of all railroad people and all railroad investors.  We invite their support--and the support of all who travel--for this badly needed improvement in rail transportation.
 
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
Nickel Pate Road

Terminal Tower, Cleveland 1, Ohio


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