1908 - Ticket Office Question

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Wed Mar 26 22:30:00 EDT 2008


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






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