The Kaufman Electrification Act of 1923, or Kaufman Act for short, was a law passed by the New York State Assembly, mandated electrification of all railroads in New York City by January 1, 1926. The bill was sponsored by recently elected Republican Assemblyman Victor R. Kaufman and signed by Governor Al Smith on June 2, 1923.
The Act made no exclusions, affecting mainline traffic and freight yards in all boroughs of New York City, including the isolated rail system of Staten Island. The Act led to a large influx of diesel locomotives onto New York City railroads and hastened dieselisation of the American railroads. The railroads objected, initiated lawsuits, and succeeded in overturning the Act as unconstitutional.
Background
In 1846 the City of New York allowed the Hudson River Railroad Company to lay the tracks for its new line to Albany directly on the streets, "westerly of and including Eighth Avenue or Hudson Street. For more than seventy years steam trains ran directly on major streets and avenues of New York. The elevated rapid transit lines on the Manhattan were converted from steam to third rail electrical traction in 1900–1903, the passenger trunk lines were gradually electrified over the next decades.
On January 8, 1902, fifteen New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad commuters from New Rochelle were killed when a local New York Central Railroad train from White Plains missed a red light and rear-ended the train stopped in Park Avenue Tunnel. The accident was linked to exhaust smoke obstructing view of traffic signals. The resulting public outcry led to calls for electrification of the line and replacement of the then-overcrowded Grand Central Depot. In 1903 state legislators passed a law banning steam locomotives from Manhattan after June 30, 1908, and demanding electrification of New York Central Railroad (NYCRR). The company, which had already contemplated electrification, introduced electric traction on its Manhattan trunk lines in the end of 1906. The NYCRR mainline employed third rail electric supply because low clearance in the tunnels ruled out use of overhead lines. The trains changed electric locomotives for steam engines at Croton-Harmon and North White Plains. Other incoming trunk lines were largely electrified by 1923. The isolated Staten Island Railway, operated by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, remained powered by outdated coal-fired 4-4-0 camelbacks and 2-4-4Ts hauling wooden cars.
However, freight and switching operation remained powered by coal-firing steam engines, contributing to air pollution and road accidents. The NYCRR was the only railroad with north–south tracks connecting Manhattan to upstate New York; the Pennsylvania Railroad operated an east-west passenger service through Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. All other mainline railroads terminated along the New Jersey and Brooklyn shorelines and ferried their railcars to Manhattan by car floats. They operated dozens of big and small rail yards on Manhattan and employed scores of coal-fired switchers. The worst offender was the West Side freight yards below 33rd Street, where coal-firing switchers hauled their cargoes along 11th Avenue (popularly called the "Death Avenue") and adjacent streets in what is now Hudson Yards and Chelsea. The government handled safety and pollution problems separately: ordinances to eliminate grade crossings were effected on a case-by-case basis, complete elimination of steam traction became the target of the 1923 bill introduced by Victor R. Kaufman.
Politics
The 1923 Kaufman Act was enacted in the shadows of a far larger public debate about the future of the troubled subway system. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was placed under receivership in December 1918 and was heading into liquidation. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company barely escaped bankruptcy in 1921. Post-war inflation devalued the five-cent ticket price fixed in the Dual Contracts of 1913, and the companies defaulted on their investment contracts. They lobbied to raise ticket price and were stonewalled by Democratic New York City mayor John Francis Hylan, who made cheap fares a major campaign issue, denied public help to the BMT and IRT, and demanded public control over the subway. Hylan, determined to nationalize the subway, ran into an open conflict with the moderately minded Transit Commission, which was created by Republican Governor Nathan Lewis Miller in 1921. The new governor Al Smith, elected in November 1922, sided with Hylan on the transit issue, but failed to disband the Commission due to Republican opposition in the State Assembly.