Kaufman Act
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.
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).
[5]: 35 The isolated Staten Island Railway, operated by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, remained powered by outdated coal-fired 4-4-0 camelbacks and 2-4-4Ts hauling wooden cars.
[6] However, freight and switching operation remained powered by coal-firing steam engines, contributing to air pollution and road accidents.
[3]: 82 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.
[3]: 83 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.
[9][10] One of the Republican Assemblymen elected from New York City was Victor R. Kaufman, of the Seventh electoral district[9] of Manhattan's West Side.
[13] The two discussed subway congestion, public buses, and court systems, and Hylan easily held his ground; he left with a patronizing remark: "Don't be too harsh with the Assemblyman... he is young yet".
Kaufman's proposal had not yet aroused public interest; on April 7, The New York Times barely mentioned as a local ordinance limited to the freight yards along Riverside Drive.
[15] The Act required that by January 1, 1926, all railroad traffic in New York City, Mount Vernon and Yonkers[16] must be converted to electrical traction (which, at the moment, was the only viable alternative to steam).
[17] Kaufman brought his own party of civic activists and businessmen and prevailed: Smith signed the bill on the next day, Saturday, June 2, 1923.
[6] Earlier in 1925 Central Railroad of New Jersey put in operation a similar diesel switcher at its 138th Street[5]: 33 waterfront terminal in the Bronx.
[24] The Pennsylvania Railroad made plans for electrification of its three main lines, including Philadelphia-New York, but, as of June 1924, did not have funds to begin work in near future.
The NYCRR effectively brought talks to a stalemate by demanding elimination of all grade crossings on the West Side, to allow the same standard of safety and engineering as on its other lines.
[2]: 82 In November 1925 NYCRR announced a plan to invest $30 million in the electrification of its West Side Line, contingent on the city's decision to close grade crossing.
[16] This times the railroads asserted that enforcement of penalties ($600,000 a day for NYCRR alone[b]) is tantamount to outright, unconstitutional confiscation without due process of law, under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
[32] Judge Hand ruled that the Kaufman Act was unconstitutional inasmuch as it infringed the constitutional Commerce Clause, and extended the injunction against fines.
[33] The State Assembly amended the Act to comply with the concerns raised in the ruling, extended penalty deadline for another five years, and allowed use of diesel locomotives along with electric ones.
[2]: 83 The project resulted in a new 13-mile-long (21 km) elevated structure, the $150 million High Line, which opened in 1934, was electrified with a third rail power supply, and was separated from street traffic.
