CALL US PENN CENTRAL

[Music] [Music] 12:01 a.m. February 1st 1968 [Music] [Music] we can't repaint 4000 locomotives and 200,000 cars overnight so the old labels will be around for a while let them be your reminders that we've combined the best of two great railroads but from now on call us Penn Central [Music] [Music] [Music] a locomotive engineer in Massachusetts a resort complex in Florida a load of automobiles in Michigan a research scientist in Cleveland a commuter train in West Chester an amusement park in Georgia a coal train in West Virginia a basketball game in New York a real estate development in California a car builder in Pennsylvania an industrial park in Texas a computer complex in Philadelphia a trailer manufacturer in Pennsylvania a pipelined fuel service for jet aircraft at Kennedy Airport a station agent in Chicago a new kind of train racing through Maryland these and many many more are parts of the penn central america's largest transportation company and its sixth largest corporation with more than 20,000 miles of tracks we serve 100 million people in fourteen states two Canadian provinces and the District of Columbia Penn Central is first and foremost a railroad from our rail operations come eighty percent of our revenue but unfortunately very little of our net income one reason for this is the changing pattern of public travel our passenger operations lost 85 million dollars last year our challenge is to adapt our service to today's needs so we're phasing out the long-haul runs the public has shown it neither wants nor requires as a substitute we will offer something new penn central is investing 45 million dollars the Department of Transportation 11 million to introduce a new concept of passenger service designed for highly populated urban corridors in preparation for high-speed travel between New York and Washington our 226 mile main line along this vital corridor has been transformed into the best roadway in the world [Music] improvements included installation of welded rail new ties and balanced high-level station platforms and stronger catenary wire a fleet of 50 self-propelled Metro liners costing 21 million dollars will be used in this service constructed by the bud company they will emphasize speed convenience safety and luxury initial schedules call for a two-hour 58 minute run between New York and Washington increasing public assistance in Pennsylvania New Jersey New York and Connecticut is helping us to modernize commuter service in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas operating contracts with city regional and state authorities are improving service and cutting deficits while public financing helps to buy new equipment [Music] freight traffic of course is the backbone of the Penn Central and we are engaged in an enormous effort both to give better service and increase our volume of traffic Cole is our most important source of traffic the 730 unit trains we are moving each month carry much of it to open additional cold markets Penn Central has built two new lines a 35-mile branch south from Waynesburg Pennsylvania and a 10-mile westward extension of our cap Tina branch in southeastern Ohio [Music] we have a new automated Cole Pier at Ashtabula Ohio for fast and efficient loading of Great Lakes Collier's its million ton ground storage capacity will permit movement of coal into Ashtabula during winter months when Great Lakes shipping is at a standstill it also speeds unloading of iron ore another important source of freight traffic our merged system connects a great grain producing region with leading Eastern ports and markets we're emphasizing use of high capacity covered hopper cards and improved service to build this traffic [Music] and central transports about 20 percent of the nation's automobile output and about 21 percent of its piggyback shipments [Music] we're developing a new market through the use of containers for export and import and have interchange agreements with 45 Steamship Lines for containerized shipments to and from all parts of the world another freight traffic objective of Penn Central is to develop solid train loads of manufactured goods and packaged food stuffs operating between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts on through schedules expansion of industrial potential along our tracks is also a key to building freight traffic our industrial development specialists assisted last year in the location or expansion of more than 700 manufacturing plants on Penn central lines adding over 300,000 car loads to our annual Freight potential hand in hand with the development of new sources and concepts of freight traffic our Penn Central's programs for improving its car and locomotive fleet last year we acquired some 250 high-powered diesel locomotives and more than 3,000 freight cars many were built in our own shops where thousands of others were completely reconditioned [Music] we have spent huge sums more than a billion dollars since 1961 for rolling stock and construction of new facilities our newest is a 70 track electronic classification yard near Albany New York [Music] fully automated with built-in ice and snow defrosters it represents an investment of twenty nine million dollars an exciting innovation on Penn Central is the automatic car identification system it tested and pioneered one of its first practical applications is in daily use at Denholm Pennsylvania without pausing in its trip from mind to consumer a coal train passes over a new kind of scale beside it is an electronic scanner which reads the car numbers from color-coded labels the numbers and weights are automatically reported to a Penn Central Information Center this is just one of many far-reaching developments made possible by computer technology a field in which we lead the industry our system of instant car location is another example by means of a vast communications network linked directly to computers any of our hundred sales offices across the nation can find out in a few seconds the location of any car on the Penn Central System we also lead the railroad industry in the size and scope of our Technical Research Program [Music] scientists and technicians at this Cleveland Center undertake both basic and Applied Research in their quest for innovative equipment and techniques for example the snowblower now widely used by Air Force and railroads and cold climates was developed and patented by the center it is a means of quickly and easily clearing switches one of many cost-saving performance improving achievements by the Center Penn Central is taking bold steps to improve its railroad operations we're taking even bolder steps to strengthen our corporate position through diversification broadening our earning capacity in several cities we are utilizing the valuable space over our tracks like the 87 acres around 30th Street Station in Philadelphia [Music] a few blocks away Penn Center built above suburban station is one of the most successful urban redevelopment projects in the country another project is being advanced for 148 acres of our property in Pittsburgh the potential for such development is also demonstrated by the new Madison Square Garden and Penn Plaza at rebuild Pennsylvania Station in New York by the activity around Grand Central where four more skyscrapers are being planned or built in this area we also operate the well-known Berkeley Biltmore Commodore and Roosevelt hotels rows of buildings along Park Avenue occupy our air rights in Washington Union Station which we owned jointly with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is to be converted into a national visitors center and leased to the National Park Service we will remodel the station interior and install a 4,000 car parking garage and heliport over the rail yards in Chicago where Penn Central operations will be combined at Union Station we have fifty percent interest in Gateway Center where two new office buildings are complete and a third is being planned over the tracks diversification has led us into fields which may have seemed impossible to old-time railroaders amusement parks for example one outside Atlanta the other between Dallas and Fort Worth and both highly successful they are operated by great Southwest Corporation of which we own 80% [Music] great Southwest sells and leases land in poor industrial parks with 6000 acres in the dallas-fort Worth area and a 3,000 acre park in Atlanta in Florida our vitae corporation in which Penn Central has a 59% interest is expanding its world-famous Boca Raton hotel and Club the modernization and expansion program will double its facilities for conventions and group meetings our vida is developing more than 40 thousand acres of real estate on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida [Music] in California Macko realty company a wholly owned Penn Central subsidiary has the largest inventory of land available for development in the Los Angeles area one of our most profitable subsidiaries is the Buckeye pipeline company it is the principal supplier of jet fuel at New York's Kennedy International Airport one of the outlets for its 7,500 mile Network it transports crude oil and refined products in a seven state area within Penn Central Territory and in Florida and Washington State another subsidiary is the strict corporation a pioneer in the manufacture of aluminum trailer and container equipment its plant in Fairless Hills Pennsylvania is the source of many of the containers we use in this concept of freight transportation [Music] trailers pipelines real-estate amusement parks progressive railroading that's Penn Central or part of it at least perhaps its most important asset his people the hundred thousand men and women who make Penn Central go we know that much remains to be done to reshape our rail system to meet its challenges but we're on the move progressive and ready to make change work for us in achieving our goals we know our company has an ever broadening base of diversification that it's imaginative programs are creating new opportunities for us and that it is molding itself to a new image the shape of the railroad of the future all of us are proud to say call us Penn Central [Music]