[Vol. 25] Public Service Commission, Second District
steady decrease of 7.7 per cent to 13.1 per cent. The revenue
from transportation as allocated to the Watertown city zone
decreased from $64,902 in 1919 to $63,176 in 1920. (P. 578.)
Operating expenses. Total operating expense per car mile
for the company was twenty-five and eighty-nine one-hundredths
cents as compared with the average for six similar companies
of thirty-seven and thirty-nine one-hundredths cents. (P. 582.)
Conclusion reached that even if the increase here asked for
is allowed no sufficient amount would be left after paying
operating expenses, taxes and setting aside a sufficient sum for
depreciation to permit a return of any appreciable amount to
the stockholders. (P. 580.)
Fares. Company authorized to increase its cash fare to a
maximum of seven cents conditioned upon the sale of sixteen
tickets for one dollar. (P. 583.)
Breen, Isaac R., In the matter of the amended and supplemental
complaint under sections 71 and 72, Public Service Commissions
Law, of, as mayor of Watertown against Northern New York
Utilities, Inc., as to rates for gas, and its heat units; and as to
rates charged for electricity. (Case No. 6132), 6.
Gas companies― rates― accrued__amortization operating
expenses. Rate base, deductions. Where a fund is accrued
from annual charges to operating expense for the purpose of
covering theoretical depreciation of plant and equipment and
other amortization of capital, and is not placed in a sinking
fund but is employed for immediate corporate purposes, the
balance in such account will be deducted from the fixed capital
in arriving at a determination of the rate base. (Pp. 12, 13.)
Actual cost used as rate base. Where evidence of actual
investment is clear and satisfactory, it will be adopted as a rate
base, giving to evidence of reproduction cost only the weight
of confirming the correctness of the clear evidence of actual
cost. (P. 19.)
Premiums paid for insurance on lives of officers for the bene-
fit of the corporation are not properly chargeable to operating
expenses as against the public, but should be charged to surplus
instead. (P. 20.)
Salaries and general expenses. Where commercial, general
and miscellaneous expenses are found to be excessive and unrea-
sonable as compared with other like utilities in the same general
territory, the Commission will take such excess into account in
determining the reasonable operating expenses. (Pp. 20-22.)
Maximum rate of $2.17 per 1,000 cubic feet permitted. (P.
26.)
Cortland County Traction Company, The, In the matter of the
petition (or complaint) of, under subdivision 1, section 49, Public
Service Commissions Law, and section 101, Railroad Law, for
permission to increase passenger fare. (Case No. 7948), 316.
Electric railways — rates. Where the revenue of an electric
railway is inadequate to pay operating expenses, taxes and a
Public Service Commission, Second District [Vol. 25]
fair return upon capital invested, the company will be per-
mitted to increase its fares from five to seven cents in each of
its operating zones.
Davis, Alfred C. and others, In the matter of the complaint of, of
Jamestown under section 71, Public Service Commissions Law,
against Pennsylvania Gas Company as to price of natural gas
charged private consumers. (Case No. 6040), 200.
Natural gas companies - jurisdiction of Commission to fix
rates for gas supplied by foreign corporation — rate base
inverted block rate. The Commission in determining the proper
rates for gas in Jamestown should not base its decision upon
the entire property and business of the company both in Penn-
sylvania and New York, but should limit its investigations to
the property in New York, and to the income and the expenses
of the business in that State, and the value of such a percentage
of the company's property in Pennsylvania as may be used to
supply gas in New York. (P. 207.)
Rates must be based upon the actual value of the property
used in the business and it is immaterial whether that property
was acquired by selling new stock out of income or otherwise.
(Pp. 208, 209.)
A company is not entitled to a return upon a reserve fund
accumulated out of its profits to make good the depletion of its
fixed capital even though such fund has been invested in the
fixed capital of the company or added to corporate surplus.
(Pp. 219, 220.)
In applying the sliding scale upward, or inverted block rate,
it would seem that the first step-up of the price, allowing a
sufficient amount for economical comsumption, should be suffi-
cient to discourage any unnecessary use. (P. 224.)
Concurring opinion Kellogg, Commissioner, p. 215.
Delaware and Hudson Company, The, In the matter of the com-
plaint of Mortimer Y. Ferris of Ticonderoga, for himself and
others, against, asking for an additional north bound passenger
train and an additional south bound passenger train between
Albany and Plattsburgh, on time schedules to be determined.
(Case No. 8065), 495.
Railroads restoration of the operation of train service
ordered.
Elmira Water, Light and Railroad Company, In the matter of the
complaint of Harry N. Hoffman, as mayor of the city of Elmira,
against, as to rates for electricity furnished the public and the
municipality, as to undue preference in electric rates, and as to
advancing cost of installation of electric service. (Case No. 7254),
384.
Electric companies — rates-value of property in public
depreciation. To place upon the users of electric
light and power in Elmira, as distinguishing them from the
[Vol. 25] Public Service Commission, Second District
other inhabitants of that municipality, the burden of maintain-
ing a street railway is manifestly unjust. (P. 388.)
The value of property used in the public service must be as
of the present time. Where the company has used the original
costs or capital actually expended method, it may be fairly said
that its property is worth today its original cost without depre-
ciation. (Pp. 390-391.)
Until capital is actually invested and a beneficial use thereof
accrues to the public, no added rate should be imposed therefor.
(P. 395.)
Order entered fixing the maximum rate of eight cents per
kilowatt hour for the first thirty kilowatt hours consumed per
month with six cents per kilowatt hour for all in excess thereof,
with a minimum monthly charge of one dollar. (P. 409.)
Elmira Water, Light and Railroad Company, In the matter of the
petition or complaint of, under subdivision 1, section 49, Public
Service Commissions Law, and section 181, Railroad Law, for
permission to increase passenger fares. (Case No. 7384), 321.
Street railways — fares — franchise restrictions segrega-
tion of accounts. Where a company, incorporated as an electric
company, owns, in addition to its electric plant, a street surface
railroad, such utilities must be considered separately for rate
making purposes, and losses in either industry cannot properly
be recouped by increasing rates to customers of the other.
There are no outstanding restrictions as to rates of fare con-
tained in franchises granted by the city of Elmira to street
surface railroads which affect the power of this Commission to
fix a reasonable rate.
Tariff approved providing for an increase of one cent in each
zone, resulting in a fare on through trips over two zones of
thirteen cents.
No charge should be made for transfers except perhaps under
very unusual circumstances, and a petition for permission to
charge for such transfers, on the theory that such charge would
prevent fraudulent practices in relation to the use thereof,
should be denied.
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In the matter of the petition
of the, under section 71 of the Public Service Commissions Law
as to price to be charged for gas and for consumer's charge in
the city of Auburn. (Case No. 5960.)
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In the matter of the complaint
of Reuben H. Galvin, as mayor of the city of Geneva, against,
as to prices charged the public (private consumers) for electricity
and gas and as to installation charge for electricity, etc.; also
complaint of the company asking that its rates may be increased
(included in answer). (Case No. 5998.)
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In the matter of the complaint
of the trustees of the incorporated village of Newark, Wayne
County, against, as to prices charged the public (private con-
Public Service Commission, Second District [Vol. 25]
sumers) for electricity and gas; and as to installation charge for
electricity, etc.; also complaint (included in answer) of the com-
pany as to rates. (Case No. 6003.)
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In.the matter of the Complaint
of the trustees of the incorporated village of Phelps, Ontario
county, against, as to prices charged the public (private con-
sumers) for electricity and gas; and as to installation charge for
electricity, etc.; also complaint (included in answer) of the com-
pany as to rates. (Case No. 5999.)
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In the matter of the complaint
of the trustees of the incorporated village of Seneca Falls, Seneca
county, against, as to prices charged the public (private con-
sumers) for electricity and gas; and as to installation charge for
electricity, etc.; also complaint (included in answer) of the com-
pany as to rates. (Case No. 6000.)
Empire Gas and Electric Company, In the matter of the complaint
of the trustees of the incorporated village of Waterloo, Seneca
county, against, as to prices charged the public (private con-
sumers) for electricity and gas; and as to installation charge for
electricity, etc.; also complaint (included in answer) of the com-
pany as to rates. (Case No. 6002), 168.
Gas companies — rates — several communities treated as a
unit for rate making purposes. Where a gas company serves
several communities, an attempt to execute adjustment of rates
as among the different communities would require among other
things an allocation of capital with an apportionment of some
items upon assumptions involving such margins of error that
the errors involved in the assumptions might lead to differences
greater than can possibly exist between a uniform rate and rates
adjusted to each community, provided an accurate adjustment
could be reached. (Pp. 171, 172.)
Where the proposed rates would yield a return of only about
7 per cent on a rate base from which all intangibles have been
excluded, the full depreciation reserves deducted and the work-
ing capital reduced as to materials and supplies from the actual
inventory to a theoretically reasonable amount, the petition
should be granted. (Pp. 177, 178.)
Empire State Railroad Corporation, In the matter of the petition
(or complaint) of, under subdivision 1, section 49, Public Service
Commissions Law, and section 181, Railroad Law, for permission
to increase passenger fare within the limits of the city of Oswego.
(Case No. 7922), 149.
Street railway — fares — franchise restrictions. A fare
restriction contained only in a franchise granted in the year
1909 does not deprive the Commission of power to fix a reason-
able fare.
[Vol. 25] Public Service Commission, Second District
Where a company has operated for only two months under
a substantially increased fare and during that period has been
subjected to extremely high costs of materials necessarily used,
it would not seem proper upon this very brief experience at
peak cost to fix a higher rate.
Gagnon, Harry, In the matter of the complaint of The Westchester
Electric Railroad Company against, as to alleged unlawful opera-
tion by him of a stage route in and between the city of New
Rochelle and Rye Beach and Oakland Beach. (Case No. 7904),
334.
A common carrier may bring an action directly in the Supreme
Court to restrain the illeged operation of auto buses.
Hudson River and Eastern Traction Company, In the matter of
the petition of, under section 49, Public Service Commissions Law,
for permission to increase passenger fares. Also supplemental
petitions. (Case No. 6084), 588.
Street railways - unusual topographical conditions-in-
creased fares allowed. A feature of the service of this road
which distinguishes it from trolley roads in general is the very
heavy grades which the cars are required to overcome. This
feature increases both the expense and the value of the service,
and makes the unusual rate of fare of ten cents collectible where
considering merely the mileage travel it might not be. (P. 593.)
Hill, chairman, and Irvine, commissioner, concur; Irvine,
commissioner, filing an opinion; Van Namee, commissioner, con-
curs in result; Kellogg, commissioner, dissents, filing an opinion.
International Railway Company, In the matter of the complaint.
of residents of the towns of Pendleton and Wheatfield, Niagara
county, against, as to alleged excessive passenger fare between
North Tonawanda and Hoffman station, and as to heating of
Hoffman station building on Buffalo and Lockport branch. (Case
No. 7341), 51.
Street railways — fares — discrimination - Public Service
Commissions Law, § 49. It is an unjust and unreasonable dis-
crimination which offends against the provision of section 49
of the Public Service Commissions Law, to require passengers
riding in two adjoining fare zones to pay more for the through
ride than the sum of the two local zone fares, the latter being
open to all the world. (P. 54.)
Irvine, Commissioner, dissents.
Iroquois Natural Gas Company, In the matter of the complaint of
F. Siegrist of 294 Carolina street, in the city of Buffalo, against,
as to combining in one bill charges for natural gas used through
meters in three adjoining houses. (Case No. 7995), 179.
Natural gas companies — unjust and unreasonable methods
of charging and billing. Where complainant is the owner of
three adjoining houses which are supplied by separate service
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