1908 - Ticket Office Question

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Roanoke Times - March 27, 1908

TICKET OFFICE QUESTION

Will Policy of Combining Offices in South Be Carried Further?

   Will the policy of combining ticket offices in the South be 
carried any further is a question that is agitating the minds of many 
railroad men. At the Norfolk & Western offices here, it is stated 
that nothing of a definite character is known in regard to the 
matter. Indeed, it is said here that if there is any well defined 
plan to combine offices throughout the South, it is not known in 
railroad circles in Roanoke. It is presumed that the report is due to 
the action taken in Lynchburg, whereby the Southern, the Chesapeake & 
Ohio and the Norfolk & Western abolished their uptown offices and 
united them into one. As to whether this policy is to be applied to 
all Southern cities nothing apparently is known here. In regard to 
the matter, the Richmond News Leader of yesterday contained the following:
   "The movement started yesterday in Lynchburg by officials 
representing the passenger department of the Chesapeake & Ohio, 
Norfolk & Western, and the Southern railways will, it is unofficially 
stated, in all probability spread to other cities throughout the 
Eastern States shortly. This movement was the consolidation of three 
tickets offices into one union office.
   "Officials of the Chesapeake & Ohio here today are unable to say 
when, if at all, the scheme will be carried out here. But those in a 
position to know say that such a course will be followed throughout 
the South and middle West first, and then gradually extended to the 
Northern and Eastern States. Later it will be carried out throughout 
the territories of the Western trunk lines.
   "Stockholder of the road, as well as the patrons, will benefit by 
the combination of ticket offices in the various cities. Curtailment 
of expenses is the slogan in all railroad offices, and will be for 
some time to come, and the railroad officials who are studying 
economical methods of conducting the business and at the same time 
serving the patrons to the best advantage, say that the course 
pursued in forming a union ticket office in Lynchburg has been under 
consideration for some months, and the whole plan will be carried out 
as fast as possible.
   "The new plan will greatly aid passengers. One office prominently 
located will handle the passenger business in addition to the 
transfer companies offices in the various cities.
   "The fact that in this and practically every other large city, all 
the railroads are in the habit, and have been for over a quarter of a 
century, of  having the transfer companies handle the tickets for the 
roads and paying them a commission, has been the cause of 
considerable criticism against the management of the railroads when 
they maintain an additional ticket office at considerable expense in 
the various cities.
   "To the person not familiar with traveling, the transfer and the 
railroad ticket offices have been a constant source of confusion."

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link