Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-11-01
Combination Coupon Tickets.

'Gimme ticket to Kansas CITY,"
!. said big-hatted individual in a Broad
!, way railroad ticket office the other day.
A reporter who was standing near says
the .ticket-seller turned to ahuge frame
or cabinet that stood against the wall.
and seized what appeared to be a card
bearing the legend s.Kansas City" The
card, however, proved to be a strip of
paper nalf-yard in length, upon which
were printed several cards Between
these the paper was perforated so that
each card could be readily detached
from the others. These cards were
coupon tickets over the several rail
roads which are comprised in route
by rail between New York and Kansas
City. The first read New York to
Buffalo, the next buffalo to Detroit"
the third Detroit to Chicago the
fourth ''Chicago to st. Louis and the
fifth est. Louis to Kansas City" Each
coupon was over a different railroad
and the price paid in the Broadway Of
flee of the railroad running out of New
York was for all of them clear through
to the terminus of the journey.
If the purchaser had obtained his
tickets separately that is, bought them
of each road as he passed over 1.-THE
cost would have been nearly double
what it was when bought here, con-
veniently, over all the roads at one
time.
'Can you sell person ticket over
any other route to Kansas City?' asked
a reporter of the ticket agent.
Certainly. After sending you to
Buffalo over our road / car give YOU
your choice of about thirty different
routes. the price of the ticket being the
same over all of them
''But how in the world do you keep
track of all these coupons, and give
each road its share of the price of a
ticket9'
"You had better inquire at the Cen
eral Passenger Agents office for that
kind of information.
Later the reporter put the question to
Mr.. Henry Monnett, General Passenger
Agent of the New York, West Shore q
Buffalo Railroad. st-s~ - -
at is simplicity itself when you once
understand it," replied Mr.. Monnett.
''As an illustration: Suppose you should
want to go to some pc mt on railroad
with which we connect, say to SIAM
| ford. We senl you to Kingston over
our road, and then on to Stamford over
the Union Il Delaware Railroad. The
| ticket from Kingston to Stamford reads
issued by our road on account of the
Union 4 Delaware. That ticket is
numbered and classified, say NO. 56,
form 112.' Our ticket agent keeps a
stub of the ticket bearing the same
number. The conductor who takes up
/ the ticket sends it back to our auditor,
and the latter sees its number and
form. In order to ascertain Just what
the ticket called for, the amount of
money it brought. and the roads it was
over, we refer to what we call 4 form
Or route book. Each form represents
route. For instance. form 1l2' we
will say is New York to Stamford via
the Union e. Delaware. The auditor
discovers the form and the rates.
"By mutual agreement when tickets
were sold over two or more roads. at
whatever rate, the roads all share the
rate pro rata per mile. Our auditor
! then takes ticket No. Sc, form 112, and
credits the Union & Delaware with its
pro rata of the through fare from New
York to Stamford. The auditor of the
Union & Delaware takes its coupon, ard
by reference to its form book traces
the ticket to its original source and
charges our road accordingly. AT the
end of each month settlements between
the roads are made, and the difference
in favor of the one or the other is made
good in money. All ticket agents are
required to send in an account of every
ticket that has been in their possession
during the month previous, and by a
glance at our books we know the exact
location of every ticket that has been
issued. You may have noticed in
tcket-frames in the agents offices
coupon tickets that have been hanging
there for so long that they have become
dusty and faded. Yet those tickets are
never more than a month old, and al
though they might hang in that frame
one hundred years they would never be
lost sight of. The system, as explained
in the illustration. is the same no mat
ter how many roads the ticket may call
for passage over. Each roads auditor,
when it receives, its coupon from its
upon the face of the ticket by which
road it was issued, refers to the route,
determines its pro rata, and charges the
road by which it was originally issued
for its share. The stub the station agent
keeps is his record of sale, by which he
can check off charges made against him
by the auditors.
"Then you have tickets printed for
every town in the country, do you?'
asked the reporter. "a IS
"Wen. we have scarcely been organ
lied long enough for that, but will have
them very shortly. An old-established
railroad like the Pennsylvania has had
printed many thousands of forms of
tickets, perhaps. five, or six, or seven
thousand different forms, Or even more.
Railroads that may form only part of
the most circuitous route from point to
point in the country make a fuss if they
are not included in some of the forms,
and so tickets have to be printed for
them. There have been very many i'm
prOvements in the construction of rail-
road tickets in late years. Before they
were made there had to be five forms of
tickets to each point, at least to each of
the principal points, first, second and
third class, limited ard unlimited tick
cts. For instance: A connecting road
might have taken stations. It might
require coupons over those other roads
to reach that road and then coupons for
each station along it. That would re-
quire sixty forms of tickets for that one
road by each route to it. Now the tick
cts are printed with spaces to be punched
out designating class and whether linn
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