Hello
and Welcome! You have found the most detailed and informative
compilation of information regarding the fiscal issues and fare control
(tickets, tokens, transfers, passes, zone checks, ticket choppers,
turnstiles and fare boxes) of transit companies located in New York
City. At the current time, we refrain from from digital / electronic
methods of payment such as MetroCard and Omny payment systems.
The
history of public
transportation in the City of New York has been very well documented in
many books,
blogs, government reports and newspaper articles. Therefore it shall not
be
our intent to rehash the general history of the
construction of the subway. Also, there are many fine authoritative
publications and websites that pertain to very specific topics such as:
the railroad rolling stock (trolleys, elevated and subway cars) used
throughout the decades; station design; sign development; tile color
coding,
artwork and frescoes; development of the transit maps;
etcetera.
In
stark contrast; very
little had been
published
about the many fiscal issues – tickets and transfers – that were sold
or issued
to
passengers. So,
in recognition of "what was
already out there" and what wasn't; this website shall focus on the
fare aspects of these transportation companies.
For
the early era of operations (1890's to 1953), it is all too commonly
thought that passengers simply dropped a nickel into a
turnstile and entered the system. But that is not exactly the
case. In the very first days, long before turnstiles were invented; and
before the subway was built and opened in 1904; there were tickets that
needed
to be purchased first and they cost ten cents not a nickel.
As
we will see; there were many more facets to
the fare payment process to access the New York City subway and surface
systems, past and present; and unfortunately they have remained mostly
overlooked until now. So, in this website, we will
endeavor to not only refer to
the
subways and elevateds, but surface transportation methods as well;
from the earliest horse-drawn stages and omnibuses, as well as
electric trolleys, streetcars to internal combustion powered
buses.
Also, many casual New York City Transit history buffs are
aware
of the original 5 cent "nickel" fare and are under the belief
it
was universal throughout the city and on all modes of the
system. What
has been published almost always pertains to the subways and elevated
fare, but streetcar and bus fares are hardly mentioned and transfer
privileges, if at all; and less so of the private bus franchises.
For the later era of operations (1953 to present), while many
people remember the tokens, quite a bit of misinformation abounds
regarding some issues; such as which token was the first, when designs were issued
(not always in conjunction with a fare raise), etc. In addition to which,
there were several special fares for extra services offered both on
subway service as well as on surface routes throughout the years. Furthermore, there are
misconceptions and misinformation regarding other fare related items as
well.
Equally as unfortunate and in this day and age of social
media, this
misinformation gets copied, pasted and shared with no regard to its
actual veracity. Fallacies and falsehoods are accepted as fact, which
is the bane of established historians everywhere. Accuracy and precision make for good historians - not egregious exaggeration and embellishment.
We are not here to pass
judgment or criticize those who have made their errors in an innocent way, but our goal is to make sure the misinformation
is amended
and the correct information made readily available to the general
public - at
least to those willing to check and accept the veracity
of said
posted information.
Sadly, even the Transit
Museum social media website has been
observed lately to post inaccurate information. To the point I have felt the need to create a new chapter to address the matter and to point out corrections in one location. It is hoped that this
research and this website will set the record straight and correct
those misconceptions and inaccuracies.
Some of these examples of erroneous or overlooked information are:
- the
original 10 cent fares on the elevateds built in Manhattan in the
1880's and before the nickel fare was adopted;
- on board conductors
took up fare tickets on the elevateds until 1879; then depositing of
tickets at chopper boxes at exits until 1880; then the ticket choppers
were relocated to
entrances;
- the
full time nickel fare was introduced for rapid transit in 1886 on the
Manhattan Elevated, not 1904 with the opening of the Interborough Rapid
Transit;
- the
ticket choppers that were used prior to 1921 and before turnstiles were introduced and were used after 1928 when the IRT opened and even as late at the 1960's;
- the
violent double fare "war" between BRT "Inspectors" and
the public riding the Coney Island routed
car lines; that took place from 1900 through 1920; was not just an isolated instance;
- the
7¢ / 10¢ / 12¢
/ 13¢ / 15¢ City Transit fares;
- the
widely varied fares of the private franchise buses (which in some cases
exceeded the amount charged on the subway and city buses!);
- The
Money Room and the underground accessways to the revenue collection
trains at 370 Jay were not a "secret" - they are mentioned in
newspapers before and during construction
- the
first token issued by the NYCTA in 1953 was the "small Solid",
not the "small Y Cutout";
- the
Rockaway double fare;
- the
actual issue date of the Bulls-eye Token was April 21, 1986, not
January 1, 1986.
There are of course, many other examples.
Furthermore, this website is offered as a
collaborative effort between George Cuhaj and Philip Goldstein. We know
it is
not
complete but consider it a starting point for documenting fiscal issues
of the
land transportation services offered in NYC. It is a companion website
to
Goldstein’s other "New
York Centric" transportation related websites.
It
is emphasized and not expected that this catalog will never be truly
"finished" or "complete". There will always be "one more
thing" we have not seen and needs to be added; so bookmark the page and
feel free to check back often.
Page revision dates are listed either under the
chapter link in the index above. It is our intention, to have this catalog
become a
usable reference and price guide for the active collector (more about
this in
another chapter below).
Inasmuch as we will discuss the various methods and
types of
fare collection, we will also cover the various types of fare
collection mechanisms through the history of most of the transportation
providers within the City of New York, from the very first stagecoach -
up to, but not including the MetroCard.
Nor will we debate the political ambitions
of mayors, governors, union leaders and
their influences or ramifications thereof on the operation of the
transit system. Only
where a particular person was directly involved with a fare or
situation, will we go
into detail.
Generalized historical information will be kept on this page,
as sort of a "primer" if you will. Specific
details regarding individual issues and their usage histories, as well as technical
information pertaining to those individual items will be found
on the respective pages of those items. There will of course, be some redundancy.
Technical data is listed (when known) in the following manner:
- Tickets, passes and
other paper items transfers (ephemera), the dimensions are in inches.
- Tokens issues (exonumia)
are listed in millimeters and inches.
- Most items in the
catalog are shown
actual size: 1:1 (100%) on 16:9
wide screen monitor with monitor window at 100%.
However,certain large
size items have been reduced slightly for formatting and space
conservation.
- Tokens, however are
shown at 2:1 (200%) for detail.
While in most cases, the
backs of tickets are shown for reference if so printed; therefore if
the back
of paper ephemera is not shown, it was most likely unprinted, presently
hinged in an album, or damaged in those cases of those items that were
removed from their mountings..
In
developing this
website catalog, there three different eras of use regarding
transit operations in the City of New York:
| pre-First
Unification |
many
private companies |
1820's
through 1940 |
| First
Unification |
Board
of Transportation - The New York City Transit System |
1940
through 1953 |
| Second
Unification |
New
York City Transit Authority |
1953
to the present |
Please note: The coverage of this website currently
stops at the point
in time in which the MetroCard system replaced most of these printed
fiscal
issues.
.
| YES!
Contributions are welcome! |
If
you don't see it on one of the pages of this compilation, we want to
know about it!
If
you wish to offer an
item (or items) for
inclusion, you are invited to email us using the contact information at
the end
of this introduction. Whether you have one
piece or many, a ticket, token, transfer or pass or any other fiscal
item that you do not see already on any of the
pages in this website, you are cordially invited to share them here.
Your submission(s) will be
watermarked
with your name and your name listed in the special thanks chapter
below.
Please feel free to contact me regarding
errors, broken links, missing images, corrections, or for any
other reason at:
Methods of Fare Collection
Public
transportation in New York City first became organized
with franchises being granted to those companies operating ferries
which
crossed the East and Hudson Rivers, and then conjunctively
with
those horse car routes connecting to those ferry operations. Tokens were issued upon
payment for transfer to connecting lines.
Tickets then became used by the early street
traction, elevated and subway
companies; and some will be surprised to learn that tickets remained to
be used concurrent with tokens, as
well as transfers.
As time marched on and technology progressed; we
watched
horse drawn modes of conveyance on the surface routes give way to
electrically powered equipment and then to internal combustion powered
vehicles. For the elevated lines, steam operation yielded to
electric power. The subways started off as powered by electricity and
have remained so.
For those unknowing; elevated and subway operations are
considered rapid transit, whereas horse drawn stage, horse
drawn
omnibus; electric trolley & street car; and internal combustion
bus
are
considered surface transit.
Cardboard
Tickets for Horsedrawn Stage & Streetcar fare payment and
transfer
.
Some of the early transportation companies used cardboard
"chits"
(tickets) instead of metallic tokens as either initial tickets or as
transfers to connecting lines.
These types of tickets were predominately used in the early era of
operations
(1830's to 1930's). Some were used in conjunction with the early
transfer token issues.
They would be collected and reused many times, only being
replaced
when worn out & illegible, becoming lost, or not returned by
the
passenger.
Following some very in-depth research into very early issues of the New York Times (then known as the New York Daily Times); I was able to ascertain some fares of the stage lines which may be read here - "Where it all began"
They were collected by the stage driver or conductor upon
boarding by the passenger. At the end of the day, they were counted,
entered into a ledger; then used the next day all over again.
Printed tickets are an economical price point for
manufacture.
Job
printers abounded in New York City at the time and re-orders were
available easily.
Eventually with printing developments, tickets were able to
be
sold in strips, bound into booklets and sold at various fare rates. However, the
survivability of small card
chits is small in comparison to brass or pewter tokens, so
there is
a general misconception of popularity in the use of either.
There is something that bears noting, when discussing tickets
and
transportation methods of this era. That being, the coinage in
circulation during the time
span when the first stages and horse drawn trolleys
were operating. These coins would not be recognized by 99% of the
modern population, many of the denominations are no longer in
circulation, and the cent was larger than a quarter. These coin issues
are historically important in their own right, and are shown here
actual size:
- Half
cent coins. Plain and simple; good old fashioned inflation reduced the
need for this coin. Discontinued as result of 1857 US Coin Act.
- One
cent pieces or "pennies", were huge: 29 millimeters - just a smidge
larger that
todays dollar coins and a bit smaller than the current half dollar.
Cents were resized to the current 19mm in 1857 as a result of the 1857 US Coin act as well.
- There
were also two cent pieces in circulation, with a big
shield on front and wreath on back. Last year of production of two cent
pieces was 1873.
- The
three cent piece was also in circulation, with a six pointed star and
Roman numeral
III in the letter C on the back. Last year of production
of three cent pieces was also 1873.
- Before
the nickel entered circulation, you had the half dime, which
was worth five cents. Last year of production
of half dimes was also 1873.
- The
nickel was introduced in 1866 to replace the half dime, but both
circulated
concurrently. The nickel had a shield of front and a numeral 5, or
later a Roman V (for 5); on the back of
them.
- Dimes
and half dimes had Lady Liberty in a seated position.
- Not
a single coin here had a deceased US President or any other notable American
person on them. Most had some allegorical (representative) form of
"Lady Liberty" on them.
Each and every coin shown was in circulation in the mid to
late
1800's; some more popular than others. But they were all legal tender;
and these coins were all used at one point or or another to pay for a
ticket or directly for a fare on stage lines and the first trolley
lines. In most cases; a stage driver, conductor or change booth clerk
(as well as merchants) were ready to accept them for payment and give
them in return as change.
And to think people of today dislike
getting pennies in change - can you imagine back then, getting half
pennies and big honkin' pennies and two cent pieces in return
for a
dime? But back then, no one threw half cents away like people do with
pennies today.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled
transportation topics.
Cardboard
Tickets for Rapid Transit (Subway & Elevated) and Surface Lines
.
.
"Back in the day" passengers purchased their
tickets from the change booth (what we have come
to currently call the token
booth) prior to boarding the train. And it was NOT always a nickel.
It
is not well remembered now, but in the early days of operation from 1879 to
November 1, 1886, the Manhattan Railway
charged the rather exorbitant sum of 10 cents per ticket.
As we read as described in detail contained in the
Proceeding of the American
Society of Civil Engineers, August 1917 article at right, is
the following information.
It clearly states that the lower fare of 5 cents was charged on
"commission
trains", which operated in the morning and evening rush hour periods.
This is the reverse of how present day commuter train fare schedules
are set (as well as other transportation methods), with higher prices
charged during peak travel times (the morning and evening rush hour
periods, Monday through Friday). In effect, this fare
schedule could be construed as "reverse congestion pricing", with
higher fares being charged during off peak travel times to make up for
the lower patronage.
We also see as a result of this article, the method of ticket
collection was changed from conductors taking up tickets aboard the
train, which was abolished on January 20, 1879. The reason for this was,
at times of large crowds - especially during rush hours; the conductor
may
not have
gotten to taking your ticket before you disembarked at your station;
allowing you to ride for free and using your ticket on another date.
So, the collection of tickets now required
passengers to deposit their tickets into ticket boxes upon
exiting the train at the
exit gates. With this worked, it also caused congestion when trains
discharged the passengers in one short time span. On June 21, 1880, the method of ticket
collection would change yet again.
Passengers now had to deposit their tickets into
chopper boxes
prior to boarding the
trains; and it is this method of ticket collection that would gain
widespread use for other rapid transit companies in the Cities of New
York, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens as well.
This method worked the best, considering people arriving to
purchase
their tickets and hand them to the gateman were for the most part
spread out over time. Granted, you can still get a crush of people, but
the groups were smaller than on discharge of a train arriving in a
station.
|
. .
.
Proceedings of the
American
Society of Civil Engineers, August 1917
|
Only on November 1, 1886;
would the elevated fare would be reduced to 5 cents "around the clock"
and to match other lines, and it is on this date in 1886 - not 1904 with the opening of the IRT subway - that rapid transit operations in New York City first saw the "nickel fare" full time.
After purchasing their ticket(s) a
patron would proceed to the
gate which divided the "open area" or public spaces from the "fare
controlled
area" which was the stairs that led to the subway or elevated
platforms. Here, at an opening in this gate, a collector or
"gateman" stood
next to a glass and wood box on a pedestal, called a "chopper box".
The passenger
would hand the ticket to the gateman, who would place the ticket into
the top of the "ticket chopper", and actuated the handle that in turn
chopped the
ticket, preventing reuse. This action finally granted you access
to the
"controlled area", also known as the platforms of the subway and
elevateds, or main terminals of the surface
cars. |
| 
|
Columbus
Circle Station; showing change / ticket booth; and gate separating
"unpaid" area (and stairs to the street)
and "paid" side (subway
platform) areas. This image was taken upon completion of construction
and the chopper box not yet installed. | | Gateman with chopper box.
Note the second chopper box covered by canvas and not in use. |
The glass inspection box facilitated the inspection of the front
or backs of the tickets to check their validity as they were dropped
into. Without fail, someone,
somewhere; was guaranteed to try and gyp the system and get a free ride
- whether it be counterfeit tickets or slugs in the turnstiles.
| 
| 
| 
|
Gateman with chopper box.
image courtesy of New York Transit Museum | Ticket Chopper Box at
IRT Wall Street
Station
image
courtesy of ephemeralnewyork | Deposit slot, glass viewing box and "funnel"
image courtesy of New York Transit Museum | Chopping mechanism (slightly damaged)
and removed from wood cabinet.
image courtesy of New York Transit Museum |
The glass box on top had a glass plate v-shaped funnel at the bottom (not
shown in the patent drawings) which directed the tickets into the
chopper box. Here a set of interlaced metal teeth
resembling combs are mounted. Connecting to these teeth combs, there was a shaft
that connected
through the side of the case to the outside. Much like the
purpose
of a modern paper shredder; only the chopper boxes were
manually
operated. The tickets were chopped to
prevent reuse and the shredded tickets contained in a hopper in the
bottom portion of the chopper box pedestal.
The ticket choppers on
display at the New York City Transit Museum were patented in
1894 by George Matteson: Ticket
Mutilator - Patent US517053; and were manufactured by the
Ingersoll-Sergeant Company.
Ingersoll-Sergeant was the predecessor to Ingersoll-Rand and prior to
the merger on 1906. Ingersoll-Sergeant made tunneling equipment, rock
drills, and other mining equipment that would come to be used on the
construction of the subway tunnels.
But, research has
also revealed that other models of ticket choppers predate this model;
with ticket
chopper designs dating back to the 1870's. As such, other types and
manufacturers of ticket choppers would have been used by other
transportation companies before the models that are currently on
display in the New York Transit Museum.
The diagram shown here is from "Proceedings of the American
Electric Railway Engineering
Association", October 1923; from filings submitted to them by the
Interborough Rapid Transit and Brooklyn Rapid Transit (to become
Brooklyn Manhattan Transit or BMT) and shows the placement of the
ticket chopper at a basic low traffic station. Those stations at
junctions, major street locations (i.e. Times Square) and end terminals
would be equipped with multiple gates and chopper boxes so as not to
hinder the flow of passengers waiting to enter.
Also, at this point in time the
Independent Subway System did not exist yet so it is not shown.
Considering the vastness of the subway system, it would be
some
time until turnstiles could be installed in all the stations - subway
AND elevated; and there were a lot more elevated stations then, than
there are now.
It would not be until 1928 that
turnstiles were finally deployed in all the stations of the subway and elevated
lines throughout New York City, and of
which eliminated the last of the gatemen.
Some gatemen moved into other
employment
positions or retired, and the ticket chopper boxes
were
removed and forgotten about. Or were
they?!?! ☺
One (or even two) last Hurrahs for the
Chopper Box!
Recently discovered in the New York Times issue
dated July 2,
1948, and in the multi-page coverage regarding the fare raise to 10
cents the day before; is a photo of a Transit
Employee with a chopper box at portable turnstile (Perey Model 48) accepting the new
small format combination (surface to rapid) tickets at the Fordham Road
Station in the Bronx! The caption reads, "The old ticket
chopper" came back into service at the Fordham Road Station of the
Independent Line to collect the transfers."
The intersecting surface lines for the Fordham Station would have
been the Surface Transportation Corp. Bx12 and Bx19 routes and
ticket deposited would have been almost identical to the one shown at
right; Friday July 2, would have been gray ticket like shown, but with
a number "2".
Anecdotal recollection of a member in the Facebook group for the
Transit Museum recalls a chopper box being used in the 1960's to
collect the inter-divisional continuing ride transfers from the Fulton
IND Line in the BMT Franklin Avenue Shuttle station.
One has to now wonder, if a good portion of these chopper
boxes
remain stored in some MTA / NYCTA facility for "emergency use". They
are very rarely encountered (if at all) for sale; and this rarity (if
one reflects upon it) leads one to think they have not been surplussed
and scrapped, despite their nostalgic memories.
Fareboxes from buses are very prolific; as are roll sign
mechanisms, station signage, seats, fans, and motorman's
controllers from old subway cars, track signals, as well as
other
large bulky station furniture and memorabilia from the Transit
Authority. So why haven't we seen chopper boxes? |
|
At the least, I would like to think there are a few hundred
of
them, sitting in a dusty warehouse or in a storage room under one of
the East River bridge approaches; waiting to come to light!
In conclusion, tickets were light, easily handled and
remained an economical means of fare control.
Even after
1953, when fares rose above 10 cents and prevented the use of a single
coin for
turnstile operation, and tokens were now purchased from the clerk to
gain access to the transit system; the fare ticket never
really died - it would go on to be used for special fares and limited
access uses as for senior
citizens, the physically challenged, pupils, or other special cases or
events.
These later era tickets are categorized on the
following page:
Tokens
as Transfers for Stage, Omnibus, Trolley Car & Bus Lines
.
While most consider the NYCTA "dime sized" Y token in
1953 to be the "first" tokens for transit, they were
not.
The "Y" tokens may
have been the first tokens issued for use by the
NYCTA, but:
-
they were not the
first token to be used for
transportation in New York City and;
- not
the first token used in New York City subways.
Many companies prior to the existence of the NYCTA
issued tokens to be
used as both transfer checks, and for initial fare
payment.
It is a matter of semantics.
The Board of
Transportation (the predecessor to the
Transit Authority) issued tokens for use by passengers to account for
the collection of transfers on a streetcar or bus; prior to the 1953 tokens of the NYCTA; and
tokens were used dating back to
the early 1830's, were used in this fashion by the
individual traction / transit companies. It is these tokens that are
all too often overlooked. And these early issues
were manually issued and collected by stage drivers or conductors.
|
 |
The New York and Harlem Railroad was the first streetcar
company
in New York City to have utilized tokens, and they issued one token
design with several
counter-stamps in 1831. No documentation has been uncovered yet to
determine the
meaning of the counter-stamp varieties (distance traveled? fare
discount? route?)
In the earliest of use, tokens could be either a metal of
soft to
medium hardness that can easily be struck, such as: pewter, copper,
brass or German silver; or a hardened rubber compound also
known as "Vulcanite" which could be manufactured in different colors.
In contrast to the printing of tickets which was relatively
easier to produce; to issue a metal token; a specialty manufacturer
is needed to create a design by engraving onto metal dies, and punch
blanks and then strike
them with the dies. This was a huge up-front cost which many 19th
century firms were
not willing to bear. Especially so, when a transportation company would
change names, merge or split from other lines, thereby changing the
name on the token. In some cases former partners were scratched off
tokens as we will see on Page 2 of this website.
However, once a company invested in the manufacture of a
token,
fare increases could be
handled by plating an old issue rather than minting a new one. The
potential for reuse is
tremendous. Furthermore, obsolete tokens, if not to be reused could be
sold for scrap metal value, recouping some of the financial outlay.
These early
transportation tokens are also often seen pierced with a
random hole. It is misconceived that
someone punched a hole in the token to wear on a necklace as a charm or
novelty.
In reality, these tokens were punched or drilled by the horse
car /
omnibus / trolley companies, so a conductor could carry many
tokens conveniently and
efficiently
on a metal ring made of a springy metal to distribute or
collect from passengers as needed, as shown in the drawing
at right.
If the conductor was not actually carrying the
ring of
tokens in his jacket pocket or on a suspender belt; they could also be
hung on a
peg near the door to the stage, horse car or trolley.
Later tokens were issued in exchange for transfers where
turnstiles were installed upon the newest street cars and first
internal combustion bus era.
Page
2 - Early Tokens - 1827 - 1940
Page 2 - First
Unification: Board of Transportation / NYCTS - City Wide Issues - 1940
- 1953
Coins and
Tokens as General Fare Media in the Subway & Elevateds - The
Automatic Turnstile
.
Some transportation companies opted to use tokens, not as a
reusable transfer device; but as a primary admission method
via an automatic turnstile. When first introduced, it was known as an "automatic passimeter".
Manually operated passimeters, actuated by the clerk; pre-existed
the automatic type. These manually operated passimeters will be
discussed a little later. The automatic passimeter became better known
as the turnstile.
US Government / Mint issued coins, and
later on tokens that were accepted in
turnstile applications; were always of metal
composition. We will explain why, a tad later in this chapter.
The first mechanical turnstile for the New York City subways
and elevateds was not deployed
until May 1921, and after being filed for a patent that same year, by
Mssrs. Frank S. Hedley of Yonkers and James S. Doyle of Mount Vernon, NY.
If these names happen to sound vaguely familiar,
perhaps that is
because Frank S. Hedley was the President and General Manager, and
James S.
Doyle was Superintendent for the Mechanical Department, of the Interborough Rapid
Transit Company.
Side note: it should be recognized that
there were other patents issued for other designs of coin operated
turnstiles prior to this one; but as this is the type installed in the
subways, therefore it is this model we will be focused upon.
Considering the vastness of the transit system, it
would take some
time until turnstiles could be installed in all the stations - both
subway
AND elevated; and there were a lot more elevated stations then, than
there are now.
|
|
.
This first turnstile was installed at the Lexington Avenue
and 51st Street station. It would not be until 1928 however, that
turnstiles were finally deployed in all the stations of the subway and elevated
lines throughout New
York City, and of which eliminated the last of the regularly assigned gatemen.
Subsequent improvements and modifications to the design of
the turnstile would
take place over the next decade, but the basic premise was this:
A slot on the top of the turnstile would directly
accept a single coin
or a token.
Reliable operation of a mechanical turnstile relied on three
different
(or a combination thereof) "discriminatory"
factors. For the acceptance of proper coins and / or tokens for payment
of fare, these were:
- size
(diameter) of the coin / token,
- magnetic
properties (or lack of) of the coin / token,
and if so configured,
- weight
of the coin / token.
At the time of being deposited, the coin or token
is placed into a sized
slot. Objects too large (whether in diameter or thickness) would not
fit into
the slot (i.e.: a quarter into a nickel, penny or dime slot; penny or
nickel into a dime slot); whereas coins / tokens that were too small
(i.e.: a dime or penny instead of a nickel) fell straight through to
the reject / coin return slot.
In applications where non-magnetic tokens are being accepted,
a magnet
attracted magnetic objects and directed the object to the reject slot,
whereas non-magnetic coins /
tokens fell straight through into the acceptance channel. This was not
an issue with coin usage, as all US coins are non-magnetic. In those
circumstances where steel tokens were used as fare media, the magnet
attracted the token into the acceptance channel, letting non-magnetic
tokens, coins or slugs fall straight through to the reject slot.
After meeting the
above two
criteria, the coin or token now rested on upon a balanced
lever
calibrated to the precise weight of that
particular coin or token. If
the coin or token was too heavy, it depressed the lever and was
directed through to the reject channel. Too light, and the lever would
not depress, also redirecting the bad token / coin / slug to the reject
channel.
Now for the reason why tokens were metal:
once the proper coin or token was in the acceptance position on the
lever, this in turn completed an electrical circuit
(55, 57, 58 in the patent drawing below left) which in turn energized a
solenoid which then released the pawl
mechanism holding the turnstile paddles thereby allowing them to
be moved, as
well as releasing the balancing lever, allowing the coin to drop into
the coin receptacle box.
Any foreign coin, a coin of different value, a slug or any
other
object not of the accepted size (diameter or thickness), magnetic
property or weight would be
rejected, fall through to the return slot, and the turnstile would stay
locked. Because
the locking ratchet pawl only locked the turnstile one
way, passengers exiting could simply push through from the
fare controlled side to the public side, while those traveling from the
public side to the fare controlled side would find the turnstile locked.
Furthermore, some models of turnstile that were mounted on
the
side of
token booths, were also were equipped with a foot lever projecting into
the booth, so a clerk could manually release the turnstile for members
of the police or fire departments, transit employees, or other pass
holders such as students. Research has shown, that these particular
type of turnstiles are known as a "passimeter", while the stand alone
coin / token operated types were noted as a turnstile. In modern day
operations, no difference is specified between types and all are called
turnstiles.
With the introduction of turnstiles, the fare control areas
changed. Not to mention, each of the rapid transit companies at that
time (IRT and BRT) had their own philosophies on fare control area
design. Of course, the actual physical attributes of the station
location dictated some of the layout characteristics, but for the most
part, the fare control area layout was standardized to a degree.
All diagrams shown here are from "Proceedings of the American
Electric Railway Engineering Association", October 1923; from diagrams
submitted to them by the Interborough Rapid Transit and Brooklyn Rapid
Transit (to become Brooklyn Manhattan Transit or BMT). Also, at this
point in time the Independent Subway System did not exist yet, so it is
not shown. In the diagrams below, the turnstiles are called
"passimeters".
This first diagram reflects the
arrangement for fare control areas in IRT stations utilizing side
platforms. This arrangement would be used for local service only
stations.
In comparison to the IRT arrangement, here is the BRT layout
for
a similar side platform stations for local only service as well.
This next diagram reflects the arrangement for mezzanine fare
control areas. While the diagram shown represents an elevated line
local service arrangement, the arrangement could be modified
and used at elevated stations with local and express
service as well as subway stations offering both
local and
express service, with the platforms and staircases leading to island
platforms between the local and express tracks, instead of the
platforms to the outside of the local tracks as shown
Note that one end of the mezzanine contains the high entrance
/
exit turnstiles (HEET) to allow off hours automatic entrance.
This diagram is unattributed to a particular user,
but would be a variant for side platform station.
Returning to the discussion of the turnstiles, one thorn
remained
in the side of their usage however: the IRT used electrically operated
turnstiles. The BMT, and
later the IND used mechanically operated turnstiles. This factor would
come to
haunt the NYCTA when it decided to place the token into use in 1953.
|
|
 |
|
|
Last nickel: Ms. Carmen
Gherdel - July 1, 1948
IRT Times
Square Station
image courtesy
of the New York Times Digital Archives
|
First dime: Ms. Esther
Pollack - July 1, 1948
IRT
Times Square Station
image courtesy
of the New York Times Digital Archives |
First 15 cent token: Ms.
Judy Reed - July 25, 1953
IRT Times
Square Station
image courtesy
of the New York Times Digital Archives
|
Lapse forward to 1953, when
the New York City Transit System found itself in need to raise the fare
to 15 cents. Turnstile mechanisms of that day could not yet be
manufactured to
distinguish varying and multiple coin sizes in such a small
confined space and do so
reliably. We
all know coin operated token dispensers and vending machines
for various products could take two or more coins and dispensed the
item with the turn of a knob. So why not apply that to turnstiles?
The
15
cent fare now meant coin combinations of three nickels or a dime and
nickel. Furthermore, the mechanisms
could not make change for a quarter. A multiple coin turnstile would
have opened
the door to patrons placing coins in the wrong slots, and still
required most patrons to go to the token booth and get change
beforehand.
Hence the reason why the NYCTA introduced tokens as a fare payment method.
.
.
.
Models of Turnstiles
Before progressing further - it should be noted that different
models of turnstiles, both newer and older models; could be found
operated concurrently throughout the system. Note the turnstile coin
drop in the 1948 and 1953 New York Times articles above: the same towered style coin drop is
scene in both photos.
| Manually operated booth side Passimeter |
These types of turnstiles were manually activated by the change
clerk inside the booth. They were not automatic and there was no coin operated mechanism
to release them.
The passimeter was mounted halfway through
the side wall of the change booth, with a gate and turnstile arm projecting
outside the wall of the change booth, and with the side with the foot lever
and counter projected into the booth. Usually a shelf covered the arm
inside the booth so the clerk was protected from walking into it and had
more work area.
When a passenger who was entitled to travel
for free, the change
clerk would depress the foot lever which in turn released the arms,
allowing the person to now pass through to the revenue side of the
station. This happened more than people realize: it
could be another transit employee, a policeman, a student, a vending
machine owner filling up the Chicklets / Beeman's dispenser, or perhaps
an advertising man changing the posters from Burma Shave to Barbasol.
Coin operated turnstiles were mounted to the outside of the passimeter lane.
In the earliest days of fare revenue collection, the terminology in the trade journals was
specific: these were passimeters. Automatic coin
operated versions were known as turnstiles. As time progressed, the
passimeters were lumped into the turnstile category; and as passimeter
gave way to the "electric lock gate", so as the passimeters faded from
use; terminology was no longer an issue.
| |
left unit: IRT; right unit: BRT / BMT
 |
designed by IRT; manufactured by General Electric: the "Featherweight Pressure Gate" - 1922
fare: nickel 1921-1948; dime 1948-1953 |
The first electro-mechanical turnstile for the New York City subways
and elevateds was not deployed
until June 1921, and after being filed for a patent that same year, by
Mssrs. Frank S. Hedley of Yonkers and James S. Doyle of Mount Vernon, NY.
If these names happen to sound vaguely familiar,
perhaps that is
because Frank S. Hedley was the President and General Manager, and
James S.
Doyle was Superintendent for the Mechanical Department, of the Interborough Rapid
Transit Company.
They were revolutionary for their time and even had a name: "Featherweight Pressure Gate"
Other turnstiles mechanism were developed prior to this model,
and required some serious pushing to get it to cycle. But
this model was design specifically for high traffic rapid transit use,
and it easy of turning made it well suited to the crush of thousands of
passengers per hour.
After the patent was granted and the demonstrator model
successfully tried out in service, General Electric Company was
contracted to manufacture them.
It took until 1928 to install at least one of these turnstiles in each and every station on the IRT.
There are images in the NYTM archives showing this model in service in the the 1950's!
better image requested |  |
Perey Model 48 and 55 "Superstyle" - circa 1930's
fare: nickel 1921-1948; transfer tokens |
This model of turnstile was not used for rapid transit (subway / elevated) fare
collection, but it was
used by the surface transportation vehicles beginning around 1930;
namely the newer model streetcars (Presidential Conference Committee Cars)
and even some internal combustion powered bus models of that era as
well.
Perey Model 48 on Brooklyn & Queens Transit PCC Car #1001 |  
 
  |
| 
Perey Model 55 |
In this area of
operation, the surface transfer system had a lot of variations. There
were transfers that cost 2 cents, and some were free. Normally, with a fare box equipped vehicle; a
passenger handed their paper transfer to the operator / driver and the passenger proceeded to the rear
of the streetcar / bus to find a seat.
The installation of this turnstile hindered that operation. As
the
turnstile was mounted in the aisle a few feet behind the driver and
the passenger now had to pass through it to reach the seating portion
of the vehicle - it was accessible only by the passenger. The passenger
now needed some form of fare media to activate the turnstile to be able
to pass through. Since the transfer had already been prepaid;
depositing additional funds was not the answer as that would incur a
double payment upon the passenger. The solution laid with the use of
transfer tokens to overcome that turnstile obstacle.
When a passenger desired a
transfer to another line, it was requested at time of boarding of the
first streetcar / bus. The two cent surcharge was paid directly to the
operator on the first
streetcar or bus, or if it was free; presented the passenger with the
applicable paper transfer. When that passenger boarded the second
streetcar or bus, they surrendered the paper transfer to the operator;
and in turn the operator gave the passenger a transfer token to be
deposited into the turnstile, permitting the passenger to proceed
through to the back of the streetcar / bus. In no other terms, it was an added labor procedure that
accomplished the same end result.
In the case of free transfers, a token was issued just as well to pass through the
turnstile; however, it appears very likely that the two different color tokens
were used to denote the different fare structure: one for free
transfers and the other for 2 cent transfers.
Perhaps at some point, if the companies were steadfastly adamant
about retaining the use of the turnstiles and not fareboxes; an
electric release for the turnstile operated via push button by the
operator would have sufficed, eliminating the need for the transfer
tokens.
Despite the initial outlay of producing the token issues, and the
labor incurred in handling them; it was the fact that the turnstile
took up too much space - its placement
in the aisle between the first set of seats; was the ultimate factor
against its continued use. Double
seats now had to be replaced with single seats, and the seating
capacity was reduced by at
least four passengers. Or, during rush hour;
thirty standing
passengers packed in like sardines (just kidding!) - more like maybe
ten standees. In either case, it reduced the carrying capacity of fare paying passengers.
Detrimentally its position, in cases of short and sudden stops; standees would
bang
into it and / or even fall over it. More over, in a situation where
passengers needed to get off the bus via the front doors, in case of
emergency or when the rear exit doors were blocked by a crowd, the
turnstile hindered this exit route.
So, fareboxes remained king of revenue collections on the surface transit vehicles. |
World's Fair Model - Double Fare - 1939
media: nickel (on exit from subway) and dime (on entrance to subway) 1939-1940 |
Manufactured by Perey, (model number not known at this time).
This type of turnstile; was used for double fare applications,
specifically at the 1939-1940 World's Fair at Corona - Flushing Meadows
Park.
Double fares were collected at the World's Fair Station of 1939 - 1940
for passengers arriving to visit the location. An extra 5 cents was
payable upon exit from the station, making the total fare 10 cents.
Departing the World's Fair Station charged 10 cents. So in
essence, this turnstile was dual fare, dual denomination.
This extra fare was collected to help offset the cost of the
temporary subway line extension to the Fair Grounds, which was built at
a cost of approximately two million dollars. At the conclusion of the
World's Fair, only $500,000 in fares had been collected to offset the
cost leaving the Board of Transportation to absorb the remaining
balance.
A similar "exit payment" style of turnstile was used from 1956 through
1975 on the IND Rockaway Line south of Howard Beach, and of which also
collected a double fare in the means of an extra token upon exit; and
for the time span listed.
It
is not known at this time if this 1939 Worlds Fare Model Turnstile were
repurposed for the Rockaway Double Fare Stations, or a different machine
entirely was placed into use.
 |  |
Perey Kompak Model 37 - 1939
media: nickel 1921-1948; possibly dime? 1948-1953 |
A notable feature of the Model 37, is
this design was the first to featured a conical turnstile arm
arrangement, with the hub mounted at a 45 degree angle to the ground.
This
allowing for a significantly smaller footprint for the machine on the
platform floor.
As a big bulky wooden arm no longer jutted out to the right of the
machine and taking up space between turnstiles, another turnstile lane could be placed immediately to the right
of this one.
This
saving of space allowed more turnstiles to be placed "en block"
(several grouped together) and in a row, and hence increasing fare payment
capacity for that location.
This was especially beneficial in large
stations, such as those at junction points or at terminals, that saw
large amounts fare payment traffic.
Simple, utilitarian, compact, easy to clean, easy to maintain. It became the workhorse of the transit system. |  |
Perey Kompak Round-End Model 97 - 1946
media: nickel 1921-1948; dime 1948-1953, token: 1953 - |
Designed by John
Vassos, a renowned industrial designer; of whom was hired to design this new
streamlined turnstile by Perey Manufacturing.
Streamlining
was en vogue, and Vassos applied the look to many items, including
Nedick's food outlets, RCA household radios; and the first television
and entertainment centers (TV - radio - turntable in cabinets).
Mr. Vassos worked with other notable industrial designers of the time,
including but not limited to: Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy and Norman
Bel Geddes; but Mr. Vassos' name is not as well recognized as the others, as he refrained of
opening his own firm.
This design featured the conical turnstile arm arrangement as well, which
allowing for smaller foot print space.
This conical arm arrangement has become the standard configuration for future turnstile models. |  |
Perey Model 107 - 1950's
media: dime 1948-1953, token: 1953 - |
The next model in the evolution of conical arm turnstile.
Design accents bear resemblance to the tail-fins and vertical taillights of 1950's automobiles.
Its open bottom design under the turnstile arms facilitated better sweeping and mopping of the revenue area.
Black. Chrome. Simple. Elegant.
|  |
Duncan Industries Model TC "Token - Coin" - 1978
media: two quarters or token 1978-1980(?) |
The first reported installation of this model of turnstile was
February 1978 (not 1980, as the Transit Museum interpretive display
states in the turnstile section).
This model of turnstile was an attempt to collect both tokens and numerous coins within a single turnstile. While
the kinks had long since been worked out for a multiple coin mechanism
in a turnstile;
many New Yorkers had been so conditioned to the single token, they were
placing the token or quarters in the first slot they saw, and this gave
them a 33 percent chance of choosing the correct slot: 33% chance of
coin in token slot - 33% chance of token in coin slot - 33% chance
correct object in correct slot!
As such, the design was not successful. But this model saw the
incorporation of smooth stainless case panels for ease of cleaning and did not require painting.
In any event, the acceptance of tokens and coins made this turnstile a dual fare media.
But kudos to the NYCTA Revenue Department for the attempt!
|  |
Tomsed Turnstile Company Model 110 - 1983
media: token |
Not a great deal is known about this model, or its reason for installation.
It could simply be a case of Tomsed being the lowest bidder for the contract.
Tomsed is known to also manufactured the new stainless steel one
way High Exit Gates. Perhaps a deal was reached where the NYCTA would
take 5000 High Exit Gates, and 500 turnstiles on an approval basis, but this is unconfirmed.
Brushed stainless steal case with minimal seams and smooth joints
make for easier sanitizing, especially when the "token suckers" were at
their height. Did not require painting and was better for keeping
internal mechanisms free of dust and dirt.
Tomsed was purchased by Boon Edam in 2005, a Dutch company that
also specializes in gates, turnstiles and other revenue controlled access items.
Research will be forthcoming. |  |
AFC Turnstile (Cubic) Automatic Revenue Collection Group - 1992
media: token or MetroCard
|
This turnstile was released into public use initially as a token only machine in 1992
However,
its original design was fully intended to and was upgraded to include an electronic fare payment method such as
the MetroCard, when said system rolled out at a later date, which was 1997.
In taking tokens and MetroCard, made this turnstile dual fare media.
These turnstiles were also designed to deter fare-evaders by
turnstile jumping. The sloped top caps on left and right prevent a flat
and level placement of hands, and the inverted U tubes and uprights
towards the exit, limit the headroom and arm placement when hopping
over. As always, the determined fare evader still found ways to
circumvent paying their fare, but the instances were reduced.
These are the last turnstiles to have been built with token
acceptance in mind. Again, stainless was the material for the case.
With the abolishment of token use in 2003; the token slots were capped and this machine became MetroCard Only.
The
machines are expected to have the internal MetroCard computer readers
exchanged for Omny computers and RFID pads mounted on top by 2024. |  |
High Entrance Exit Turnstile "HEET": ca. 1945
media: nickel, dime or token
|
American Turnstile 1931 - ca.1945
Perey Manufacturing, unknown model number - ca. 1945
These turnstiles were coin operated from 1945 to 1953 and then operated by tokens (only) after that date.
These are used at low
traffic egresses of stations, where token booths may have been part time, or a passageway where a change or token booth may have
been impractical due to space restrictions.
In
another consideration for their use, was when budgetary shortfalls became common place
within the transit system in the late 1960's through the 1980's; these High Entrance Exit Turnstiles could be
installed, replacing a part time or full time change / token clerk
position.
This style have
been replaced with modern stainless steel tubular models; that are
cleaner, and of a more open design for those that may have
claustrophobia; and prevent the hiding of a mugger or other criminal in
the blind spots behind the sheet metal panel.
Even newer versions of the HEET were adapted to take MetroCard.
|  |
|
One Way High Exit Gate
media: none |
Technically speaking, this is not a turnstile.
It is a one way gate, and there was no method of payment to enter through the device.
The design incorporates a one way ratcheting mechanism to prevent unpaid
entry, but freewheels in the exit direction.
Inclusion here is because its use often coincided with the High Entrance Exit Turnstile model above.
As a kid, they could
be fun to lock your little brother or sister in, by holding the bars
from moving further once they were in the wedge shaped area where they
could neither get in or get out; until a quick smack from your mother
made you let them out. ☺
They remain significant hazards in cases of rapid
evacuation, such as smoke conditions, fire, rapid flooding, derailments, acts of
crime or terror attacks. But, as they are strictly mechanical, they work in loss of power conditions. |  |
 |  |
Turnstile technician performing maintenance on a Perey Kompak Round-End Model 97.
image courtesy of the New York Transit Museum image archives | Rail
clerk Vera Turner's first duty at midnight was to empty the tokens from
the turnstiles at the subway station at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue
Station in Manhattan, NY - January 4, 1972
image courtesy of Newsday |
The case for the token operated turnstile.
When it comes to mass transit revenue collection, especially
on
the scale of the New York City system; a single coin rejection or jam
at a turnstile would mean that that turnstile being occupied or out of
service until it was operable again. Rectifying the issue could take
anywhere from minutes (for a token clerk to come out from the booth and
clear the mechanism, if there were no customers to be served) to hours
or
even a day or more, when a technician from the revenue department would
come to exchange the jammed or faulty mechanism with an operable unit.
.
Some people have asked, why couldn't US coinage (nickels,
dimes, quarters,
and such) be used as the standard medium for payment
and
eliminate the token?
While this sounds like a plausible enough suggestion, let us look at
that inquiry a bit more in-depth.
Naturally, the process for fare payment when it was a nickel
or a
dime was simple enough for a single coin. But, when fare hikes were
approved to keep in line with rising costs of maintaining service,
patrons would in no way tolerate a 150% jump in fare from 10 cents to
25 cents just so the transit system could keep a single coin fare. As
it was, the fare increase in 1948 from 5 cents to 10 cents was a 100%
increase and still constituted single coin use. And
we all know how that hike was met, by public and politicians alike - it
is a extremely well covered topic by newspapers and transit enthusiast
publications!
As the fare would be expected to rise over the
decades, so would have the need for
more and more coins of different denominations and combinations to
be deposited to activate a turnstile. So fare increase
increments were kept to 5 cents as long as feasible, but eventually
as we have also come to see, those fare raises in nickel increments
became insufficient to keep up with and cover the increased costs of
operations. So the increment amounts of the fare hike were increased to
10
and 15 cents; to today, where a 25 cent raise in fare in just "normal".
There was even a 50 cent hike in the transit fare back in 2013.
This table below shows the
combinations of both the most through the least amount of coins that
would
be required to activate the turnstile for that given fare amount. Bold
text
indicated single coin operations. Also, please note that "odd amount"
bus fares of the 1953 through 1956 (7 cents and 13 cents) and where
pennies were needed to pay the fare or make change are not shown
as they did not incur turnstile operations.
| 5¢: |
1 nickel |
|
|
|
|
|
| 10¢: |
2 nickels |
1 dime |
|
|
|
|
| 15¢ |
3 nickels |
or 1
dime and 1 nickel |
|
|
|
|
| 20¢: |
4
nickels |
or
2 dimes |
|
|
|
|
| 25¢: |
5
nickels |
or 2
dimes and 1 nickel |
or 1 quarter |
The NYCTA never
collected a 25¢ cent fare
- it went from 20¢ to 30¢. |
| 30¢: |
6
nickels |
or
3 dimes |
or
1 quarter and 1 nickel |
|
|
|
| 35¢: |
7
nickels |
or
3 dimes and 1 nickel |
or
1 quarter and 1 dime |
|
|
|
| 50¢: |
10
nickels |
or
5 dimes |
or
2 quarters |
or 1 half dollar |
as far as is
known, the NYCTA did not accept half dollars in turnstiles or bus fare
boxes,
only token booths accepted them for payment (with reluctance). |
| 60¢:
|
12
nickels |
or
6
dimes |
or
2 quarters and 1 dime |
or
1 half
dollar and 1 dime |
or
1 half dollar and 2 nickels |
|
| 75¢: |
15
nickels |
or
7
dimes and 1 nickel |
or
3 quarters |
or
1 half dollar and 1 quarter |
or
1 half dollar and 2 dimes and 1 nickel |
or
1 half dollar and 3 nickels |
| 90¢: |
18
nickels |
or
9 dimes |
or
3 quarters and 1 dime and 1 nickel |
or
1 half dollar and 4 dimes |
or
1 half dollar and 8 nickels |
|
| $1.00: |
20
nickels |
or
10 dimes |
or
4 quarters |
or 2
half dollars |
or
1 half dollar and 2 quarters |
or 1 dollar coin |
| $1.15: |
23
nickels |
or 11
dimes and 1 nickel |
or 4
quarters, 1 dime and 1 nickel |
or
2 half dollars, 1 dime and 1 nickel |
or
1 dollar coin and 3 nickels |
or
1 dollar coin, 1 dime and 1 nickel |
| $1.25: |
25
nickels |
or
12 dimes and 1 nickel |
or
5 quarters |
or
2 half dollar coins and 1 quarter |
or
1 dollar coin and 5 nickels |
or
1 dollar coin and 1 quarter, |
| $1.50: |
30
nickels |
or 15
dimes |
or 6
quarters |
or
3 half dollars |
or
1 dollar coin and 5 dimes or 10 nickels |
or
1 dollar coin and 2 quarters |
Now, despite the availability of the half dollar coins
(Walking
Liberty: 1916 - 1947; Franklin: 1948 - 1963; and Kennedy: 1963 to
present) and Eisenhower dollar coins (introduced in 1971),
they
were not popular coins as a media of exchange or payment. These coins
were considered too bulky and heavy in one's pockets. The Susan B.
Anthony dollar, released in 1979, was also poorly received by US
citizens for general circulation, not so much as due to weight
as
it was smaller than the Eisenhower dollar and smaller even than the
Kennedy half dollar, but because its size and
color was easily confused with the quarter; hence its derogatory name
the "Carter Quarter". US citizens, especially the NYC transit patron;
were steadfastly committed to the nickel, dime and quarter as means of
fare payment.
And keep this in mind - some passengers lived in areas
under-served by rapid transit lines that required a bus ride on top of
the subway / elevated trip. This meant paying double fare! So some poor
sap might have to pay a fare
twice just to get to work or go home each and every day. Now imagine
carrying twice the amount of change (four trips).
Visualize if you will, a subway patron attempting
to place 30 nickels or 15
dimes into a turnstile while trying to catch their train pulling in?
"Did I put in 9 dimes or 10?" "Oops - I dropped my change!!" "I put too
many quarters in; Mr. Token Clerk, can you give me a refund?
What do
you mean no?!?!?"
If this is not bad enough, picture this scenario but now during
rush
hour; with passengers attempting to place the correct
quantity of coins
into their respective differently sized slots on a turnstile with
accuracy and quickly, while more and more people are lining
up behind them, to use the turnstiles
themselves, clamoring
"Hey buddy! Move it will ya? - I gotta catch that train!" (This
is New York - nobody is patient!)
If any of you remember the old cigarette vending machines or
cafeteria food vending machines where a customer stood there for what
seemed like 20 minutes (while you waited your turn behind them) pumping
change into the coin slot to make their purchase (ah, the days of the
nickel or dime Horn & Hardart Automat), you will understand.
In those cases, no one was really in too much of a rush.
But in the hustle and bustle of mass transit, with hundreds to
thousands of
people filtering through a single station at rush hour; each and every
turnstile needed to be
reliable, at the ready, and any potential for mechanical trouble kept
to the
barest of minimums. This is not to say, the
NYCTA did not attempt to try coin operated turnstiles or other innovative ideas, even in later years. But these turnstiles failed
for the exact reasons listed above and as stated in the article below:
Rapid transit = rapid fare payment. So yes, in this
hyper-fast paced world of fare collection
on a mass transit system; the single token was the sane choice. Simple.
Secure. Durable. Versatile. Reliable. Convenient. And cost effective
for the issuing agencies.
So it was realized, the single token was the quickest, most
reliable method for fast, efficient payment of fares in a high traffic,
quick paced, mass transit situation. Transit patrons would need to go
to the token
booth and slide multiple coins or bills through to the clerk who would
exchange them for
a token (or multiples of tokens for later use) and the turnstiles
became token operated instead of coin operated. It was a simple matter
of the old adage "KISS" or "Keep It
Simple, Stupid". Accepting
multiple denomination of
coins at the turnstiles meant more coins to process which meant more
complicated mechanisms. Using one token kept the mechanism simple and
its reliability high.
Furthermore, with subsequent fare
hikes, the size or magnetic property of the token could be changed to
prevent the hoarding of, and prevent the use of lower value tokens.
Furthermore, it was a security measure as well: changing the size or
properties of a token prevented older generations of slugs from being
used via a new size token.
To compare this to modern day
turnstile operations, look at the delays that took place at the
turnstiles when
the MetroCard was first introduced. If you were not holding and swiping
the card correctly, the turnstile would not read the MetroCard and
release causing a back up
of patrons waiting to pay, or with modern vending machines that
repeated reject authentic dollar bills or reject good coinage.
The odd thing is, payment of fare was done with multiples of
coinage like above on the surface modes of transportation - but the
driver had to watch the coins hitting the drop plate to verify the
correct
and full fare was paid. It worked here due to the slower nature of fare
collection: one person at a time, steps up onto the bus, change at the
ready to deposit into the fare box and the driver visually verifying
the
drop of coins before pressing the accepting lever.
Not
to mention security issues: no
change in the size slot on the turnstiles could take place to deter
prevent slug use with
US coin usages; whereas in regard to tokens, the single token
size could be changed to discourage and prevent the of using
slugs.
Another positive attribute to token use, is such
that single
coin operation lends itself very well to prepayment. A pack of ten
tokens is significantly less cumbersome than say a roll of 40 or 50
coins of equal value to the tokens.
Coins and
Tokens for Streetcars & Buses
.
.
Until
1969, the method of collecting fares on trolleys /
streetcars and buses was a little different than on their rapid transit
counterparts.
When you boarded the trolley / streetcar, you
either paid the conductor; or in
growing cases of one man operation after 1930, you paid the motorman / operator / driver.
But whomever was in charge of actually collecting fares, they
would be
able to make
change as well. As such, they had a portable coin changer (an example of which
can be scene at right), and of which was clipped to their waist band
as can be seen in the photograph at below right. This coin changer was
part of their
regular duties and uniform "kit".
Coin changers
could have four, five, six or even more "barrels", the number of which
depending on the denominations of coins that were accepted, and that
needed to be given in change. Usual configurations were one for
pennies, two for nickels,
one for dimes, and one for quarters; or one penny, one nickel, one
dime, one quarter and one token. Custom coin changers could be ordered
if the conductor only needed to handle minimal types of coins: say,
only nickels and tokens.
Furthermore, if you required a transfer to a
connecting line, you
paid the extra fare (usually 1 or 2 cents) and were issued a specially
marked token (as mentioned in
the chapter above) which would be kept in
one of the barrels of the coin changer or a cardboard ticket
(mentioned in the chapter
below).
Tokens
and these early cardboard tickets were not marked for date, so abuse of
the transfer system by traveling
on two separate dates was possible and growing more frequent.
This abuse was curtailed
in later era of operations around the turn of the Century. This is
when dated
paper ticket transfers began to be issued and mass produced for use on
the intersecting lines (see paper transfers
below).
When the last models of streetcars made
their entrance into the scene in the 1930's: the "PCC car" (or
Presidents' Conference Committee Car),
the conductor's position became superfluous and all revenue handling
was done by the operator.
The motorman /
operator now had to make change, issue transfers, as well as whatever
other duties that were inherent to operating the trolley / streetcar,
including but not limited to: changing the direction of the
trolley pole at the end of a run, moving manually operated track
switches (with a pry
bar) so as to change route to a branch line off a main trunk
line,
cleaning rubbish, flipping the seats to face the traveling direction if
so required, tallying the fares, giving directions, etc.
Actually operating the streetcar or trolley itself on tracks
was pretty
straightforward: start, slow and stop, with no steering obviously.
|
|
Privately
operated bus fare raised to 13 cents - January 5, 1954 through December
30, 1955
image courtesy of the New York City Transit Museum archives
.
Model D - Manual |
But
with the advent of the
internal combustion bus, bus stops were relocated to the curbside out
of traffic lanes and now drivers had to steer the bus in and out of the
stops as well as swerve in and out of traffic.
When considering a bus driver had
to collect fares,
make change, issue transfers, collect transfers (and make sure they
were valid on both date, time as from an appropriate connecting route),
keep tallies of same; on the rare occasion assist a
passenger in boarding or alighting from the bus, let alone actually
driving the bus (especially in congested traffic),
making change was a distraction that could be eliminated. Especially
when a passenger realized
last minute they needed change or a transfer for a connecting line and
the bus was
already moving towards the stop! Driving and making
change did not make for a good combination, but they did it.
Early
fare boxes had a crank on the side that the driver had to rotate (like
a coffee grinder) to sort and count the change which then dropped into
the coin box below.
In New York City, these were the
Johnson Farebox, Manual D Model and can be seen at left (please note:
this is the only the upper sorting and counting portion only; the coin
box /
pedestal is not seen in the photo.)
Note that the Model D did not accept quarter
dollars - only pennies, nickels, dimes and one size of token. |
Model K25 (early version) |
The next farebox to be installed on NYCTA buses were Johnson
Model
K25 seen at right. These were simplified for operation with
the
lever instead of a crank to drop the coins.
It also had a
coin drawer for rejects or if the operator needed change to refill his
manual coin changer. This model accepted: pennies; nickels, dimes,
quarter dollars; as well as two sizes of tokens.
This model too sat upon a floor mounted pedestal
that was enclosed on three sides and acted as a storage cubby for the
driver. |
Keep
in mind the NYCTA did accept pennies until at least 1955, as they were
being
used by bus drivers and trolley operators to make change for 2 cent, 6
cent and 7 cent continuing ride tickets, and the 13 cent bus fares.
Around 1966, a new problem surfaced - the armed robbery of
bus drivers.
Robbers were brandishing a knife or a firearm, and relieving the driver
of
his change maker and the change within the farebox. Remember, at this
time, the driver had access to the change to replenish his change maker
or to empty the farebox at the end of the route. When aggregated at the
end of a shift,
meant the fareboxes could hold a few hundred dollars.
Until this point, the problem was
isolated to perhaps two or three drivers getting
robbed a year. We shall discuss the details of Bus Change Maker & Farebox Robberies in greater detail in the Fare Crimes chapter below.
|
 |
Also by this
point in time, the Johnson Farebox Company had been bought out by Keene.
Keene kept the Johnson model numbers but substituted their name. Seen
at left and right is the Keene Model K25 / K50.
The
Keene Model K50 is almost identical in outward appearance to the K25,
with the added internal feature to accept half dollar coins. We
definitely know the K25 were installed in NYCTA buses, but the K50 is
unconfirmed.
While the first version of the K25 had
a open three sided pedestal (as seen in the above chapter at right),
the second version of the K25 / K50 had totally enclosed pedestals and
was now equipped with a double key locked coin vault drawer.
The image at far left is the front of the newer K25 / K50 unit (facing
the
operator / driver). Note that the reject drawer has been eliminated,
and a chrome slot for holding daily trip reports mounted on the
pedestal.
The image to the immediate left, is the back of
the
unit (facing the passengers) with the vault drawer in the open
position, to show its placement and mounting.
The
vault drawer required two keys: one to unlock it and allow removal from
pedestal, the other key to actually open the drawer lid.
The first key, allowed personnel at the bus depot,
aptly
called a "vault puller"; to remove the drawer from the bus and bring to
the
count room, but not allow him to access the coins to prevent theft.
A
second key was kept in the count room, and it was this key that
actually opened the
drawer and allowed it to be emptied of coinage for sorting and counting.
A further evolution of the Model K25/K50 was the K25M3; and were those
units manufactured after 1979, which were now equipped to also accept
the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins and of which we know the Transit
Authority also accepted.
This lockable vault drawer could hold more than the old built
in coin reservoir and the drivers change maker.
|
K25 / K50 (second
version)
(operators side
showing coin counters) |
K25 / K50 (second
version)
(passenger side -
showing vault drawer) |
 |
On August 31, 1969, bus
drivers were relieved of the responsibility of making change, and buses went to exact
fare only.
But the criminal element adapted and now brought crowbars with them.
So this led to another, even more secure; design of
pedestal. The answer lay in doing away with the removable vault drawers
altogether.
They were removed from the pedestals; and coins now dropped
into a sealed coin
vault
mounted directly to the floor
of the bus; and within the pedestal.
|
 |
 |
This sealed coin vault was
equipped with
a bayonet type hose coupler on the side.
The lug on the bayonet opened a latched door (215)
allowing the coins to flow into the perforated "catch
basin" (205).
While the patent drawing at left shows both coins (70)
and paper money (60); NYCTA buses did not accept paper currency, and
the coin bin (210) took up the space alloted for paper currency (200).
A vacuum powered coin collector and processor (22) was
installed
at bus depots throughout the city around 1971-1972. An advertisement
for this system seen at above right.
The patent filing date is
September 29, 1971, with the patent being granted on October 22, 1974.
The assignee for the patent is the Keene Corp.
Upon
pulling into the depot at the end of a run, a revenue collecting agent
hooked up the end of
the hose to the port on the farebox, and activated the vacuum.
As the
air rushed into the perforations to fill the vacuum, it provided
pneumatic force to the coins flowing down and the vacuum drew the coins
into the hose and into the collector unit for sorting and counting. |
The vacuum unit was
large, and it was quite powerful - it could evacuate the contents
of the sealed fare box vault in
20 seconds or less. As
the unit required electricity to operate the vacuum as well as
contained electronics for sorting and accounting, it was not portable.
This
elaborate, stationary and very secure system made it difficult,
practically
impossible for robbery
of the fareboxes, not to mention the bus depots had many personnel
milling about instead of a single vulnerable person. This, finally
solved the problem of farebox robberies.
Returning to farebox models; several
subsequent models of fareboxes came to be
installed on NYCTA buses, that accepted the MetroCard, dollar bills, as
well as printing out MetroCard bus transfers, and now the OMNY
contactless card.
Also, it should be noted that many of the private bus lines
operating
under franchises in the City of New York, such as: Fifth Avenue Coach,
Surface Transit, Triboro Coach and Green Bus Lines to name but a few;
had different fare boxes entirely - many were known to use the Grant
Electrofarer, seen here:
Note the change
maker at top left corner!
.
.
Several factors led to the creation and issuance of dated /
time
stamped disposable paper transfer. The first was the cost of the
metallic token. Initial set up costs were more expensive than paper
counterparts.
Second, with the growing amount of abuse by passengers who
would
hold onto a
transfer token for use on a later date and getting two rides for the
price of one; and with the growth of
franchise
routes within New York expanding where some companies would honor a
transfer and others would not,
and
with various companies beginning to merge into larger companies; a much
more elaborate transfer was required. One where a list of locations of
applicable transfer points were location, and where a date and a time
could be listed. Tokens did not have the room for this data. But, a
paper slip did. When printed on pulp paper, the most economical of
manufactured paper types, they were priced just right for mass
production and short term use and disposability.
There were dozens of printers specializing in
transfer printing, and many patents issued for their specific design:
Pope, Stedman, Smith, Moran are just a few of those found on New York
transfers. Printers were a proud lot and many tickets and transfers
include the name of the printer. But even more importantly, a list of
locations or intersecting line where the transfer was accepted at was
most prominent followed by some method of time punch
Some companies
such as the New York & Brooklyn Bridge Railroad and the
Interborough Rapid Transit Co. used different printers over time, but
kept a very similar design. Some started with a nice intaglio engraved
printed ticket and ended 25 years later with a muddy lithographic
issue. If one is interested to collect by printer variety, this can be
rewarding yet challenging. Some of these are highlighted in the ticket
page.
As the 20th Century marched on, the number of
ticket and transfer printers slowly whittled down; either through
attrition; merger or business closure. When companies change, the
references for collections and archives often are destroyed, thus
creating
difficulties when trying to document what was actually made and when.
Coinciding with
the First Unification in 1940, Globe Ticket Co. became the predominant
ticket printer for the New York City Transit System. As a "union shop",
that designation was a criteria in the awarding of contracts
from
the Board of Transportation and subsequently the New York City Transit
Authority. But visual evidence also shows Elliott Ticket
Company, National Ticket and Southern Coupon as receiving ticket or
transfer contracts.
New York City Transit Authority had their own "in house"
printing
shop for service notice signs and small run items and it seems that
some tickets were produced there as well.
With the issuance of dated one time use paper tickets or
transfers. Further development of the time transfer narrowed usage to AM and PM or even specifically to the
hour.
Zone
Checks - The Oddball of the Fare Collection Methods
also
known as the "Pay Enter - Pay Leave" fare method
Zone checks are to say the least known, least used and
perhaps one of
the most unusual facets of fare collection in New York City.
The "fixed fare" also known as "Pay Enter" method were
prevalent
for almost all of the surface transit operations in New York City,
including almost all of the private trolley operators, the Board of
Transportation and later the Transit Authority operations
afterwards. They
did not use the zone system in their fare systems (with one or two
notable exceptions) and as their systems were based on a universal one
fare payable upon boarding the streetcars or bus.
But several of the private streetcar and later bus operators located in
Queens (and I think one in the Bronx as well) utilized another
system: the "Pay Enter / Pay Leave" method. This method
required the
use of "Zone Checks".
This system was efficient for average to low
passenger traffic routes covering large distances. Zone checks were
originally developed for
use on long distance interurban trolley runs and naturally with
trolleys being replaced by buses, their use was retained.
As it would be duplicitous to run several trolleys buses
along
the same route,
with one being assigned to short distance between Point A and Point B,
a second for
intermediate distances to Point A to Point C and a third from Point A
to the remainder of the route to Point D. Furthermore, this
would require additional operators as well.
Furthermore, having
individual trolleys or buses
for each segment along the same route would require the inconvenience
of a passenger having to transfer trolleys / buses
in inclement weather and/or wait for a connecting trolley bus to
arrive.
Therefore, one long route was divided into multiple segments
along a single route and each segment defined as an individual zone.
The fare would based on an initial fare within one zone (intra-zone)
AND the distance traveled to another zone (inter-zone). Each zone could
have a single or multiple stops.
But, to be able to
tell which zone a passenger boarded at, required some form of
accounting device. Enter the "Zone Check". Zone
checks could be color coded tokens made of metal or plastic,
and lettered or numbered. They
could also be color coded cardboard chits of different sizes (to avoid
confusion or mistake) or they can be plain black ink
on paper tickets. Each operator preferred their own system; but in
essence
basically operated the same way. The operators in Queens
seemed to have preferred the cardboard variety.
The way the pay enter / pay leave system works is thus: the
bus
company charged increasing fares for multiple zones, and this is only
an example. A company could charge varying rates per zone, and not
necessarily in equal
increments:
| within each Zone
(intra-zone) |
10 cents |
| from Zone 1 to Zone 2 or
Zone 2 to Zone 3 (inter-zone): |
20 cents |
| from Zone 1 to Zone 3
(inter-zone): |
30 cents |
When a passenger boarded the trolley or bus, they paid the
base
fare or the intra-zone fare: 10 cents. Some of these operators also
issued their own base fare tokens, which could be used instead of US
coinage and of which, could be offered in discount for certain
pre-purchase quantities. The driver / operator then handed the
passenger a zone check apropos to their boarding location;
for those boarding in Zone 1, they received a Zone 1 check; those
boarding in Zone 2 were issued a Zone 2 check and obviously, those
boarding in Zone
3, Zone 3 checks (and if there were more zones, a Zone Check
representing their boarding zone). This is the "Pay Enter" portion of
fare payment.
As the trolley or bus proceeded along its route,
and as passengers were disembarking at their
stops in each zone, the
passenger returned their Zone Check to the operator who informed them
of their remaining fare; and of which the passenger paid. This was the "Pay Leave"
portion of their fare.
For example: a passenger 'A' boards at the start of the run
in Jamaica
which is in Zone 1, pays the 10 cent base fare so the driver hands them
a Zone 1 Check. Passenger 'B' boards pays the 10 cents and
that passenger
is also handed a Zone 1 check. A few blocks later, passenger
'B' goes
to get off the bus, hands the Zone 1 check back to the driver, and
nothing more is owed as the passenger was aboard for only one zone of
travel. A few miles later, the bus enters Zone 2. Passenger 'C' boards,
and pays the 10 cents base fare. The bus driver gives the passenger a
Zone 2 Check.
Several miles later, the bus arrives in Zone 3. As the passenger 'C'
gets off the bus, and
hands back to the driver their Zone 2 Check, the driver / operator
informs them they owe 10 cents more is
due. Passenger 'A' returns the Zone 1 check back to the driver; who
informs the passenger that 20 cents more is due.
And
obviously, the system will work with even more zones, if necessary.
Ultimately, the driver collected the
appropriate base fare (intra-zone) from
the passengers upon boarding and then again (inter-zone) based on their
distance
upon their disembarking pursuant to the Zone Check issued when they
boarded.
It sounds more complicated than it is, but in
actuality, it really was not.
Furthermore,
it is essential to note that most of the private bus operators
operating in Queens fielded
fleets of buses (also known as coaches); that were built without
mid-body exit doors, as commonly seen on
Board of Transportation, NYCTA and MaBSTOA buses.
For some of the Queens operators, one set of doors at the
front
by the driver
was sufficient for both entrance and exit; as seen in the
image at
right of a coach for Steinway Omnibus built by Mack Trucks in 1939.
However, some companies would operate both types of buses
(with
and without mid-body doors); with buses equipped with center doors
assigned to routes within single zones of operations.
|
 |
Zone checks could be found issued in token form (seen in both
metal and plastic), as well as paper and cardboard issues. As far as is
known, none of the Queens operators used zone check tokens, opting for
paper or
chipboard checks instead. But it is known the several Queens private
bus lines used metallic tokens for both general fare payment, as well
as tokens used as transfers.
Several of the private bus lines also issued Add-A-Ride
supplemental fare tickets to be used in conjunction with the NYCTA's
Add-A-Ride Tickets when introduced in 1975 as well.
.
.
As we now see, there is a place in fare control for
tokens,
tickets, transfers, zone checks, as well as coins and currency. Every
revenue source needed to be
documented to provide proper service and accounting, whether it be
general admission or a special admittance.
Tokens were
extremely well suited for a general, heavy, repetitive use. Future
issues, as well as older issues; could be stored for future use; as
well
as repurposed. And, when necessary, at the end of their service life,
they could be sold for scrap for the base metal content.
Tokens for a limited application such as in exchange for
transfers could be produced in much more limited numbers than say
tokens to be used as a general widespread method of fare payment. When
used in general fare applications, they
were without any doubt; a significant initial investment and for the
long term, and especially so in the scope of New York
City where many
millions of tokens were needed - later token orders were in quantities
of 50
to 60 million tokens! Why so many?
Granted, you had your single or two
token users such as tourists and business visitors that were only in
town for only a day or two; as well as residents
that did not travel frequently via mass transit, such as the elderly,
the physically handicapped, or even an able bodied user that mostly
commuted by automobile, and all of a sudden finds their vehicle in the
shop
But you
also had to consider the regular
commuter who would buy packs of tokens in multiples of 10, for coming
work weeks. Four million people use the New York City subway on an
average
workday. If only fifty percent of those regular commuter
passengers purchased a
single 10 pack, that was 20 million tokens not in
circulation
at any given moment. And a lot more than the fifty percent of regular
commuters bought ten packs for convenience every week or two packs
every two weeks.
This figure does not include those tokens actually in
circulation
at that precise moment: those in the turnstiles, waiting to be sold at
the token booths,
(or where applicable) in stock at banks or major retailers for
convenience sale; nor doe the amount account for those
held in
reserve by the NYCTA. Tokens held in reserve gradually replaced those
accidentally or intentionally brought home by tourists as souvenirs;
but also for the more prosaic reasons: being lost, eventually worn
out (it might take a while, but tokens did reach a point of being so
worn they became problematic) or damaged. Furthermore, tokens in
reserve were used as a buffer in those times when a raise in fare was
announced and passengers were hoarding tokens in the hope to save a few
dollars.
Tickets and
transfers on the other hand, were very well suited for those
applications only requiring a one time use, whether it be for a general
continued trip such as a bus transfer or for specific controlled
access like a block ticket.
Paper tickets and transfers were cheap to mass produce,
customizable for use or location, carry a significant amount
information pertaining to their use and redemption. Quality was not
paramount, only legibility. Ink coverage could be inconsistent; they
were printed on the most economical of pulp papers (a few exceptions
outstanding), and not always cut squarely. Basic issues could be
printed ahead of time (lacking the date, serial number or route number)
and stored for short periods; however they were susceptible to
absorbing moisture and could take on a musty odor.
This detriment aside, they would be dated
as needed by method in the printing
industry called
"crashing". Multiple daters on a press would imprint the date onto the
pre-printed transfer. While serial numbering would advance
sequentially, the date stayed as set and both were usually printed at
the same time in red ink.
Depending on the day of
the week, as little as five hundred to ten thousand transfers
could be printed per route, per day (with weekends and holidays
generally having a lower printing run than workdays) and depending on
the passenger traffic: trunk route received more traffic than say a
several block shuttle line to a cemetery.
Once
used, they were expected to be disposed of. Chopped upon presentation
to the gateman, or in later eras; simply dumped in a landfill. Many a
bus driver reused his brown paper lunch bag as a trash bag for
transfers. When they got off the bus at the end of their shift - the
bag wound up in the curbside trash receptacle. Only in
recent years, were the transfers accumulated and disposed of in a
recycling bin at the depot.
All things being equal, both these fiscal issues and others;
were
necessary to providing transportation services on a large scale. The
accurate
collection and accounting of fare payment is as important to management
as providing the transportation service itself.
370 Jay Street - The counting room and revenue transfer corridors from the subway tunnels were not secrets!
So,
how did they get all the money from the token
booths to the counting room?
Obviously, when dealing with a transit system on the size of
New
York City; a lot of money had to be picked up from the token booths. Armored cars of the Board of Transportation would visit the stations of the IRT, BMT and IND to both
retrieve both the fare proceeds and daily accounting records from the change / token
booths, and
brought to 250 Hudson Street in Manhattan; of which the Board of Transportation leased and did not owned.
A new centralized
headquarters owned by the Board of Transportation was proposed beginning in 1938. Two
locations were proposed: Broadway & Houston Street in Manhattan
and at 370 Jay Street in
Brooklyn.
It was intended from the very beginning to eventually consolidate the operations
of the IRT, BMT and IND Divisions under one roof.
This included the central location of the Transit Authority board of
directors and officials, police department, clerical staff;
train
dispatching center, radio communications center among other departments. Including the revenue counting room and vaults.
 |
Ultimately, the Jay Street location in Brooklyn was chosen, and construction
began in late 1948 and completed in 1951.
So it is here, in this this building and on the
second floor; the
holiest
of holy areas in the NYCTA universe was created: the count rooms
and vaults.
Here,
coins and currency were counted, wrapped, bundled and placed into
rolling
strong boxes. Millions of tokens stored in bags of 10,000 - new tokens to be rolled
out when a raise in fare was to take place to prevent hoarding - or kept in storage when a
token change was deemed unnecessary. Old token issues retained and
stored for future use, or waiting to be scrapped for metal content.
But most importantly, the
accounting of revenue could take place for all divisions in one locations; as well at the secure storage
of coins, currency, tokens, tickets, and other high value revenue
items; which could be stored under the tightest of security; in that location.
Again, by reading the New York Times articles above, it was
planned from the very beginning to have "money cars" brought to the
basement of the new building, where ever it was decided that
construction was to take place.
|
As can be read from the following three New York Times articles beginning in 1938; it was NO SECRET the money room was to be located in this facility. It was was NO SECRET that subterranean tunnels were to connect the money room directly to the subway tunnels for direct transfer. It was NO SECRET one of these doors opened directly to the IND Jay Street - Borough Hall Station.
How these rumors of "secret" tunnels, vaults, railroad cars and
other bits of history gets started, I have no idea. But it is quite
frustrating to witness casual everyday people get duped into believing
fallacies started by some johnny-come-lately blog for "clicks", "likes"
and "shares". What it was; was not open to the public or even non-revenue personnel. It was a highly restricted area; but a hardly secret.
As you can see, the newspapers knew about it, non-revenue NYCTA
personnel knew about it. Non assigned Transit Police knew about.
Transit buffs knew about it.
Just because on is not
allowed to go in it, does not make it a secret. Just as we know now the
facility in Ridgewood, Queens - it's where all the revenue goes now.
But it isn't no secret.
Note
the image above - it is looking out of the transfer tunnel for the
Revenue Collection Train from the IND Jay Street Borough Hall Station.
Some "secret."
This centralized storage made it convenient if a particular station was to be near the site of a parade or other
special public venue, such as; but not limited to: 34th Street / Herald
Square Station and the immediately surrounding stations on other lines
along the parade route for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Or, say
Times Square Station on New Years Eve and New Years Day. Whatever the
reason, extra tokens and coinage to make change for paper currency
could be dispatched from the vaults to the station in advance of an
anticipated increase in passenger traffic.
In juxtaposition, if a particular station developed an excess of
tokens, over and above the designated
amount alloted for that location; they were returned to this location
as well, to be redistributed or
held in reserves in the vaults.
To collect these vast amounts of revenue, resulted in a very
unique facet of the revenue collection operation; the
“money train”. Again - as can be read articles above - it was intended
from the
beginning to have "money cars" collect the fare proceeds from stations.
Money trains had already been tried on the IRT - it was only a matter
of adding them and a receiving facility for BMT and IND lines as well.
Considering an armored car (actually a truck) of the era was a
smallish vehicle. The accompanying image is of armored cars of the City
of New York - Department of Finance. Armored cars used by the Board of
Transportation would have been similar and possible even the same.
The armored cars seen in the image were built by International
Motor Trucks, and were built right in Queens. Mack - International
Truck had factories and assembly lines in Brooklyn, Queens,
Manhattan, and the Bronx. The armored trucks of the era were of limited
capacity, in regards to the amount of protective agents and in regards
to the amount cargo in comparison to a subway car.
As the predominate fare throughout this era of operations was by
coin, this was naturally a heavy cargo. Perhaps heavier than one
realizes: Over a billion fares were collected on the Transit System
(rapid and surface lines) in 1950. The fare was a dime. This equates to
168,100,000 dimes. That figure, divided by 365 days equals 460,547 dimes per day. That amount of
dimes weighs 23,028 pounds or 11½ tons. If one is generous, the armored
cars shown had a carrying capacity of 1 ton, maybe a ton and a half.
There were about 600 stations (don't forget the now demolished
elevateds!) spread out over 243 square miles in 4 boroughs. It hardly could have been efficient.
Furthermore, road vehicles could easily be stopped at any
point
along its route. Rush hour congestion, broken traffic signals, a large
fire, and number of reason could hold up the revenue collection.
Of course the
worst scenario was armed robbery. At any number of street corners, a group of
armed robber could be
waiting to "knock off" and armored car. Block the street with a car or truck (à la the movie
"Heat") and security was jeopardized - there was no where to go.
Many
armored car heists took place in this fashion. The nature of operating
in the open was itself a security issue.
| 
courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society archives |
On the opposite side of the token (pun intended); the elevateds and subways however, operated in isolation from
access to / of the general public; except at stations every few blocks.
So by nature of it operation, revenue collection by train was more secure and isolated from public access.
If I remember correctly, these freight elevators were
constructed with only two stops: the subway level and the second floor
of 370 Jay Street. There was no access at either the first floor or to
higher floors in the
building for these two elevators. This prevented the elevator car from stopping,
or being stopped on the first floor or above the second floor, where the strongboxes could be
brought to the street accidentally, or intentionally; in an attempt to
steal them.
Once emptied of their contents,
the trains would return to their respective storage yards in the north,
to repeat the process again the following day; again - at a slightly different time.
above:
Automatic currency processor. The GPS 1000 high speed mixed currency
counter and sorter can process 30 bills per second. This machine sorted
denominations, counted, examined (for counterfeits).
The
employee is extracting sorted banknotes from the machine and placing
them into the acrylic stacking
box to her right. Additional racks of stacking boxes are seen on the
sloped table
behind her.
|
|
 |
| center image: Manual counting and rubber
banding of currency by denomination. Accounting of TransitCheks in rack
closest to employee. |
right
most image: bundles of banded and wrapped currency being placed into
large rolling strongboxes. The smaller rolling strongboxes in the
background are the type that were carried aboard the Revenue Collection
Train. The large strongbox being loaded by the employee, was for
internal count room use. Note the various types of revenue in this
strongbox: US currency of various denominations and Transit Checks (bottom
left), also note the wrapping bottom right: NYCTA and LIRR. Coins and tokens (were counted and stored in another room.
All images: MTA photographer Patrick Cashin on the final day of Money Room operations at 370 Jay Street in 2006. © 2006 - courtesy of the New York City Transit Authority |
Coins and currency that had been sorted, counted and packaged, were transfered from
the vaults on the second floor of 370 Jay Street; down to the first floor
loading bay at the cul-de-sac of Pearl Street, on the back side of
the building.
To get the outgoing revenue from the second floor
to the loading dock, and hence to the banks via armored car, a different elevator that stopped on the
first and second floors (and other than the direct one between the
subway platforms and second floor) was used.
Once at this loading dock, he coins and currency would be loaded into armored
trucks
and brought to and deposited at the respective financial institution(s)
under contract with the NYCTA; and for the currency to re-enter and
recirculate in the Federal Reserve banking system.
This cul de sac on Pearl Street, was by nature a rather secure location - what with
both the Brooklyn District Attorneys' offices and Brooklyn Law School as
a direct neighbors to 370 Jay Street. The Kings County Supreme Court,
Kings County
Criminal Court, Kings County Family Court, Kings County Civil Court, Brooklyn Borough Hall and the Main Branch of the Post
Office all within a short walking distance. Transit
Police headquarters was two blocks away (but a detachment regularly
occupied 370 Jay Street - and of which the administrative offices of
NYCTA moved into this building after 1990). The 84th
Precinct of the New
York Police Department was four blocks away. Several state and federal
law enforcement agencies were also within very close proximity to 370
Jay Street. All of which gave the surrounding neighborhood for 370 Jay Street, a very significant law enforcement presence. But as time
marches on; so does history. The NYCTA slowly began vacating their
administrative offices from 370 Jay Street beginning in 1990; however
the
NYCTA Revenue Department remained on site until 2006.
In that year;
NYCTA revenue
operations were consolidated with the MTA and TBTA Bridges &
Tunnels, and relocated to newly constructed, extremely high security
facility in Ridgewood,
Queens; bordering on Newtown Creek.
In all honesty, the
new facility has the appearance of a maximum security prison rather
than a municipal structure. But being equally as honest, that make
perfect sense.
With
the widespread acceptance of MetroCards and their (mostly) electronic
payment systems; did away with a significant amount of handling of coins and currency at the token booths.
With that diminished handling of coin and currency,
it is nowhere on the scale of pre-MetroCard era and no longer required
the space accommodations that were available on the revenue collection train.
So,
the Revenue Collection Trains were abolished in 2006, following the
relocation of the revenue department of the NYCTA to Queens. Regular
(and mundane) armored trucks now pick up the fare proceeds now. |  |
 |  |
MTA
(Metropolitan Transportation Authority) - NYCT (New York City Transit)
- B&T (Bridges & Tunnels) Consolidated Revenue Facility
Ridgewood, Queens
images courtesy of Google Maps |
The Revenue
Collection Train
(or: how to
collect all that money efficiently and get it to headquarters to be counted)
The "money train", or at the NYCTA calls it; the
Revenue Collection Train.
For IRT and BMT operations prior to the First Unification in 1940
- research is needed and forthcoming. Your input is most welcome: brghtnbchexp@aol.com
Prior to the 1940 Unification, we do know the IRT and the BMT had
at least three Revenue Collection Cars each, with the IND coming into
the mix in 1932 (see roster below). These collection cars were
augmented with armored trucks operating on the street.
Revenue collection cars
operated during the Board of Transportation and Transit Authority eras
of operation (1940-1953 and 1953-2006 respectively); and consisted of former passenger subway cars –
almost always
rebuilt from older rolling stock that had been retired from passenger
carrying
service (with one exception), but still had some life left in them. When these cars served, armored trucks also collected revenue from stations.
R244 - Lo V
image courtesy of nycsubway.org - D. Grotjahn | 
R247-248 - R6-3
image courtesy of nycsubway.org - M. Hodurski |
The first revenue cars
that were purposely built for that particular duty, were built by St.
Louis Car Company in 1939. Contract # R8A, car #66 and #67. Only two
were built.
The standard windows
would be replaced with bullet resistant glass; and welded grills bolted over the
windows on the interior of the car. Also the center sets of doors were omitted entirely. 
R8A #66
image courtesy of nycsubway.org - D. Pirmann | 
Note the round steel barrels with a locking lid. These are early strongboxes.
image courtesy of New York Transit Museum Digital Collections | 
R8A - #67
image courtesy of nycsubway.org - D. Pirmann |
After the 1939 R8A cars were retired, they Transit Authority
embarked upon rebuilding the next series of revenue cars in house. They have the tools, and they have the talent!
Beginning in 1988, under the R95 contract; one R21 (originally constructed by St. Louis Car Company in 1956) and eighteen
R22 cars (also constructed by St. Louis Car Company, but in 1957) were converted into Revenue
Collection Cars.
This gave the NYCTA eight trains (not just one); four sets for regular service and one set in reserve on
the IRT Division; and four sets for regular
service and one extra revenue car in reserve for BMT and IND Divisions. These
would also be the last series of revenue collection cars built, and
served up until 2006.
On this model of revenue cars, some of the windows would be
"blanked" (a/k/a plated over). The center sets of doors were blanked
as well, reducing the number egress points. Bars
were welded over the windows on the outside of the car. However, these
cars were painted safety yellow, making the collection car look more on
the order of a work car or train,
than that of an armored car.
The
interior equipment: the revenue car was equipped with drop down shelves for counting
out tokens and currency for disbursement, that
were hinged over the small rolling strongboxes; much in the fashion old
railway post office cars were equipped on the older long distance
trains. Cabinets for various items were mounted to the walls - empty
cloth money bags for holding coins, currency and tokens; the security
seals for the bags; supplies of blank accounting forms; and other logistical items
necessary for revenue transportation.
Coins, currency and tokens was stored in
dark green rolling strongboxes. These strongboxes were equipped with
half hinged tops and fronts with padlock tabs on top. To open the front
panel, you opened the top slightly, and then could drop the top half of
the front panel. These strongboxes were lined up along the bottom of
the walls under the drop shelves of the revenue car.
The locker car was more spartan: subway seating remained along one
wall, and fixed narrow tables in front of them for paperwork, cups of
coffee; newspapers. There were a cluster of lockers offset for uniforms
and presumably ammunition, shotguns, and personal effects.
In
both the revenue car and the adjoining locker car; were revenue
collecting agents; along with a detachment of uniformed New York City
Transit Police; each of whom were obviously armed. Each officer carried
their standard
issue side arm; .38 caliber revolvers at first, and in 1990; 9
millimeter semi-automatic handguns were authorized and adopted. Never
brandished or confirmed, but assumed to have been on
board; were shotguns for close quarters defense. There were two radio
systems aboard: one on the
frequency of train operations, another on the frequency of the Transit
Police
Department.
With
some exceptions of large stations where the token booths are located on
a mezzanine; the train platforms were mostly on the same level
as the token booths. A lot of stations, especially the IRT; are
constructed with the token booth a mere 20 or 30 feet from the
platform. So, the train was the most convenient way to make revenue
collections.
Revenue Collection Train - Locker Car IR 714 (IRT)
On display at IRT Court Street / Transit Museum Station, Brooklyn NY |
Revenue Collection Train
- Revenue Car OR 715 (BMT / IND)
Note the portable gap fillers at the each of the door sills.
This allowed an original IRT R-21/22 car to be used on BMT and IND lines. |
| . |
|
Revenue Collection Train
- Locker Car Interior (IRT)
|
Revenue Collection Train
- Revenue Car Interior (IRT)
Note the small rolling strongboxes under the folding counter space. |
| . |
|
Revenue Collecting Agent - Revenue Car OR717 (IRT)
This image were taken by MTA photographer Patrick Cashin on the final day of Money Train service in 2006
courtesy of New York Transit Museum |
 |
| bottom
most image above; courtesy of New York Transit Museum . All other
images and and data in roster below courtesy of nycsubway.org / David
Pirmann. |
Revenue Collection
Trains
IRT - BMT - IND (Board of Transportation) |
| IRT | | BMT / IND |
| New Car # | Old Car # | Original # | Car Type | | Notes | | New Car # | Old Car # | Original # | Car Type | | Notes |
| R241 | 20182 | 4704 | Lo-V |
| Pressed Steel Car Co. - 1916-1925 | | 30178 | 20178 | 2500 | Standard | | American Car Foundry - 1914-19 |
| R244 | | 5622 | Lo-V | | Pressed Steel Car Co. - 1916-1925 | | 30179 | 20179 | 2714 | Standard | | Pressed Steel Car Co. - 1921 |
| 30183 | 20183 | 5302 | Lo-V | | Pressed Steel Car Co. - 1916-1925 | | 30180 | 20180 | 2741 | Standard | | Pressed Steel Car Co. - 1921 |
| 30181 | | 5559 | Lo-V | | | | | | |
| | | | |
| |
|
| | | | | | | | | M247 | | 923 | R-6-3 | | both American Car Foundry - 1935
stored 207th Street Yard awaiting restoration |
| | | | | | | | | M248 | | 925 | R-6-3 | |
| |
|
| | | | | | | | | 20177 | | 67 | R-8A | | St. Louis Car Company - 1939 |
| | | | | | | | | 20178 | | 68 | R-8A | | St. Louis Car Company - 1939 |
| |
|
Revenue Collection
Trains
New York City Transit Authority |
IRT
- Division A
one revenue car and one locker car made up one train. |
|
BMT - Division B1
/ IND - Division B2
one revenue car and one locker car made up one train. |
| New Car # |
New Contract # |
Old Car # |
Old Contract # |
Car Type |
Train |
Basing location |
Notes |
|
New Car # |
New Contract # |
Old Car # |
Old Contract # |
Car Type |
Train |
Basing location |
Notes |
| 0R714 |
R-95 (1988) |
7194 |
R-21 |
Revenue |
#2 |
East 180th St. Bronx |
St. Louis Car Company - 1956
was in NYTM |
|
0R719 |
R-95 (1988) |
7389 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#7 |
Jamaica, Queens |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| 1R714 |
R-95 (1988) |
7422 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#2 |
East 180th St., Bronx |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957
was in NYTM |
|
1R719 |
R-95 (1988) |
7386 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#7 |
Jamaica, Queens |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| |
|
| 0R715 |
R-95 (1988) |
7343 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#3 |
Corona, Queens |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
0R720 |
R-95 (1988) |
7337 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#8 |
Concourse, Bronx |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| 1R715 |
R-95 (1988) |
7424 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#3 |
Corona, Queens |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
1R720 |
R-95 (1988) |
7444 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#8 |
Concourse, Bronx |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| |
|
| 0R716 |
R-95 (1988) |
7355 |
R-22 |
Revenuer |
#1 |
Livonia, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
0R721 |
R-95 (1988) |
7392 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#5 |
36th St, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| 1R716 |
R-95 (1988) |
7410 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#1 |
Livonia, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
1R721 |
R-95 (1988) |
7449 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#5 |
36th St, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| |
|
| 0R717 |
R-95 (1988) |
7313 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#3A |
Livonia, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
0R722 |
R-95 (1988) |
7368 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
#6 |
36th St, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| 1R717 |
R-95 (1988) |
7314 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#3A |
Livonia, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
1R722 |
R-95 (1988) |
7459 |
R-22 |
Locker |
#6 |
36th St, Brooklyn |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| |
|
| 0R718 |
R-95 (1988) |
7379 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
|
IRT - Spare |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
0R723 |
R-95 (1988) |
7490 |
R-22 |
Revenue |
|
BMT-IND Spare |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
| 1R718 |
R-95 (1988) |
7374 |
R-22 |
Locker |
|
IRT - Spare |
St. Louis Car Company - 1957 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contrary
to Hollywood; the premise was to keep the revenue collection train low
key – and not take on the appearance of some heavily armored tank that
looked more at place on a battlefield. Like the phrase goes: "hidden in plain sight". They were not shiny, with
gun ports and narrow slits of windows like one sees on armored cars.
They were painted safety yellow, allowed to accumulate the typical subway grime and
simply looked like other mundane, run of the mill, "rode hard and put away wet" work equipment; which
was more than commonplace throughout the transit system.
When it
came to the operations of the revenue collection trains; secrecy and
randomness was its primary defense and its offensive weapon. The revenue collection trains never departed
its terminals at the same time, nor did arrive at the stations along
its route at the same times each night. If one was to see it at a
particular station on early morning say, Columbus Circle at 3:15 am; it
would not be at Columbus Circle at 3:15 a.m. the next morning. It could
come earlier or later.
Unless you looked at
the car number (and recognized it like an employee or train buff
would); there was little to inform a common subway passenger waiting on
a
platform, if it were a signal dolly (used for carrying parts for
railway
signals and other heavy electrical components), a pump car (which
contained
pumps to empty out flooded stations), or; if it contained several
hundred
thousands of dollars in cash and tokens.
That is, until the doors opened. A bunch of guys got out in hard hats? It was a work train and they were going to fix something. If Transit Police and a revenue collecting agent disembarked with rolling strongbox,
it was the Revenue Train.
The Revenue Collection Trains
would begin their journeys from their
respective terminals in the dead of night; stopping and each and every
station, picking up the
days proceeds and dropping off tokens for replenishment if so
requested.
 | Upon arriving at a station; two or more uniformed Transit
Police
Officers would escort the revenue collecting agent with a rolling
strongbox to the token booth –
where the agent picked up proceeds for the day from the token clerk;
already packaged and sealed in reusable cloth bags, sealed with a metal seal on
a cotton twine string (seen at right). These canvas bags facilitated
the sorting of paper money, coins, tokens and tickets.
These canvas bag were placed
into the strongbox, and then the collecting agent returned to the collection car with the strongbox. Or, if the
strong box at the station was really full; it was simply exchanged for an
empty strongbox, and the agent brought the full one back to the
collection car. Again, a token clerk or revenue collectors insight to this process, would certainly be most helpful.
Once
the collecting agent and accompanying police officers were back on board
the revenue train, the doors were closed and secured; and “train”
rumbled off to the next
station down the line to repeat the process.
Never confirmed either, were the presence (or lack thereof) of plainclothes
Transit Police at random or high risk stops, until the collection train
left.
All in all, it was a quick process of retrieving the revenue from a token booth. To linger at the stations
for
any reason, opened up opportunities to a heist.
If the train
needed to be held up for any reason say, a train in passenger service
service breaking down, a sick passenger on a train ahead; work on the tracks; switch
problems, whatever the reason; in between stations was a safer location
for the revenue collection train to wait than in the station. |
|  |
The Revenue Collection Trains would work their way towards downtown Brooklyn, where 370 Jay
Street was located. At the end of collecting
along its respective routes; the Revenue Collection
Trains would be switched to one of the three subway lines that ran in the immediate proximity of the basement of 370 Jay Street.
The IRT Division Revenue Collection Trains would stop in the
tunnel just southeast of the Manhattan bound Borough Hall   Station.
The BMT Division Revenue Collection Trains would
stop in the tunnel as well, at a platform just west of the
Manhattan bound Lawrence Street  Station.
The IND Division Revenue Collection Trains however would
stop in the middle of the station of the Coney Island bound Jay
Street - Borough Hall  Station.
At all three of these platforms, there is a very
nondescript
roll up door sitting at a small 10 foot long or so
platform. The only roll up door that is visible from a public
area, is the one located adjacent to the IND Jay Street - Borough Hall
Station, and of which can be seen in the image at right. Note the video
camera tucked into the vaulted ceiling, watching the door and platform!
To think, when I was a regular commuter on the
line, I saw this door many times, and I didn't even realize its
significance.
Behind
each of these roll up doors is a corridor that leads to a pair of
freight
elevators, and the rolling strongboxes would be transferred from the
Revenue Collection Trains, through the corridors, onto the elevator;
where they would be brought up to the secure count rooms and vaults on
the second floor.
|
|
 |
If I remember correctly, these freight elevators were
constructed with only two stops: the subway level and the second floor
of 370 Jay Street. There was no access at either the first floor or to
higher floors in the
building for these two elevators. This prevented the elevator car from stopping,
or being stopped on the first floor or above the second floor, where the strongboxes could be
brought to the street accidentally, or intentionally; in an attempt to
steal them.
Once emptied of their contents,
the trains would return to their respective storage yards in the north,
to repeat the process again the following day; again - at a slightly different time.
Fare and Revenue Collection Crimes - The Ugly and the Humorous
Truth be told; there were numerous attempts at heisting the revenue
car. Fortunately, none were successful. On four occasions in 1950; three Manhattan teenagers
descended
into the subway station with the goal of robbing the collection train.
Whether discouraged by the number of potential witnesses on
the platform; the show of force by Transit Police on the collection
train, or because they had simply missed the train, they did not
succeed. Their
fourth attempt, which took place after midnight at the 175th Street
station on the 
line, was also a
failure. They missed the train, redirected their attention to the
change booth and ended
up shooting the token clerk, who died. They escaped downtown, whereupon
they stole $60 from the Grand Union Hotel on East 32nd Street. They were arrested the next morning and alluded to their original
intent. All things considered, a
single person had little to zero chance of taking on a squad of
officers of Transit Police; so at the least; a group of several
criminals was needed. And any group who thought to wait for hours for
the train to eventually arrive; would have seemed out of place what
with regular trains
coming and leaving and the group not leaving. A group of shifty,
apprehensive people standing on the platform, waiting for extended
period of time? No doubt suspicions would be raised.
Furthermore, the same reasons that made revenue collecting of
vast sums of coin and or currency inconvenient - the stairs to the
elevateds and subways; would also be a hindrance to robbing the revenue
train as well. What's the point, when you have run up or a down flights
of stairs with 50, 60 or more or pounds of currency. If
one is going to assume the risk of taking on a dozen Transit Police
Officers, you better come away with more than just what you can carry
in your hand. Heisting
the collection train was to say the least a daunting prospect, even
when considered. There were easier ways for thieves to rob some funds from the Transit System.
Bus Driver Change Maker and Farebox Robberies
While history has recorded isolated cases of bus farebox and
rapid transit change booth robberies dating back to the 1930's. Cases
were far and few between, and the problem was
isolated to perhaps two or three drivers getting
robbed a year.
Around the 1960's, crimes exploded throughout New York City; including crimes against the transit system. The increase of the armed robbery of
bus drivers was one such category.
Robbers were brandishing a knife or a firearm, and relieving the driver
of
his change maker and the change within the farebox. Remember, at this
time, the driver had access to the change in the farebox to replenish his change maker during the course of his shift, to
refill his change maker to provide change for fare payment and for the purchase
of transfers. Furthermore, it was the drivers responsibility to empty the farebox at the end of the route and bring it to the accounting room.
When aggregated at the
end of a shift,
it meant the fareboxes could hold a few hundred dollars. The Transit Authority via the New York Times
reported: 56 driver robberies in 1966, 97 in 1967, 244 in 1968 and 356 in
1969.
So the first step taken in the attempt to eliminate bus driver
robberies, saw the farebox now equipped with a double key locked coin
vault drawer. This
vault drawer required two keys: one to unlock it and allow removal from
pedestal, the other key to actually open the drawer lid. The first key, allowed personnel at the bus depot,
aptly
called a "vault puller"; to remove the drawer from the bus and bring to
the
count room, but not allow him to access the coins to prevent theft. A
second key was kept in the count room, and it was this key that
actually opened the
drawer and allowed it to be emptied of coinage for sorting and counting. When
the fare was a nickel, a thousand passengers aggregated to $50. But
with each successive raise in fare, first to a dime, and then higher; the "drop" multiplied. A thousand
passengers at 20 cents each, was $200. In 1975, when the fares rose to
50 cents, a thousand passengers = $500. And, a bus route on a main
thoroughfare certainly could meet or exceed 1000 passengers easily and
by the end of a shift.
Robbing the bus became much more lucrative, as well as became a team
effort. The vault drawers may
have been locked in the fare box pedestal, but thieves don't need
keys. Two thieves
now brought crowbars with them. One would hold the
driver at knife or gun point; while the second pried the vault drawer out of the
pedestal with the crowbars. So this led to another, even more secure; design of
pedestal. The answer lay in doing away with the removable vault drawers
altogether. They were removed from the pedestals; and coins now dropped
into a sealed coin
vault
mounted directly to the floor
of the bus; and within the pedestal. Coins and tokens could only be
removed by a huge vacuum operated device back at the bus depot. The vacuum unit was
large, and it was quite powerful - it could evacuate the contents
of the sealed fare box vault in
20 seconds or less. As
the unit required electricity to operate the vacuum as well as
contained electronics for sorting and accounting, it was not portable.
This
elaborate, stationary and very secure system made it difficult,
practically
impossible for robbery
of the fareboxes, not to mention the bus depots had many personnel
milling about instead of a single vulnerable person. This, finally
solved the problem of farebox robberies. The design of this vacuum is well covered in the Farebox Chapter. Somewhat humorously, one
robber didn't get the word, because on
September 1, 1969 (the day after the bus system became exact change
only and drivers no longer had either a change maker or access to the
proceeds in the farebox); a driver was
robbed of his personal $6.00 pocket money, because the thief was not
aware of the change in policy and the totally sealed farebox. This made
for
the 357th driver robbery for 1969.
But as we have unfortunately learned, the criminal
element evolves. As such,
it led to either the entire bus being held up at gunpoint which did
occur, but in extremely isolated cases.
Much more commonly, the incidents
that replaced farebox robbing and that were now taking place, were
token booths in the subway and elevated lines being robbed.
Speaking of; it was significantly easier to rob the token booth. While it
was a wholly random crime in the first half of the 20th Century it was not unheard of. Like most crimes, it became a commonplace occurrence by the 1960’s through the 1980’s;
when inner city living conditions degraded to the point that made a
certain element to become desperate and brazen. Despite all the security
measures the NYCTA could take, nothing prevented attempts, whether
unsuccessful or those that did succeed. Almost all of the successful
crimes involving Transit Authority revenue proceeds were "light
weight"; in other words of low yield. Until the 1970's a token booth or
bus farebox robbery would only net the criminal a few hundred dollars
at best.
With the fare hikes in the 1970's, like with the bus fare box robberies, "takes" increased to $1,000 or more.
Token
booth robberies became more frequent and with greater success, and with
increasing fares, larger amounts of money were taken - when successful. As
many of the token booths still had open grill windows dating from the early 1900's, a robber stuck
the barrel of a handgun through the grill and demanded the proceeds.
The criminal element was getting more desperate, and several token clerks lost their lives by being shot to death when they
resisted or failed to open the door to the token booth, and the
criminal fled empty handed.
The
NYCTA responded by covering the open grill transaction windows that
dated back to the
1800’s, with bullet resistant glass, and furthermore with the installation of enclosed token booths, made
of bullet resistant glass and metal construction, with a coin slot for
token / monetary transactions. But, the criminal element
then adapted to a most despicable, vile and heinous method.
The pouring
of flammable liquids (usually gasoline) through the coin slot. If the
token clerk did not open the door to let the thief in, more than one
"degenerate" (keeping it clean here - this is a family website!) severely injuring and / or costing the lives of several token clerks.
Following a rash of
these attacks the year before, in 1990 the NYCTA installed Halon fire
suppression systems equipped with in the token booths throughout
the system. Flame sensors instantaneously triggered the discharge of that fire suppression
system which helped prevent serious injury to the clerks.
Sadly, on November 26, 1995; two individuals attempted to rob the
Kingston - Throop Station Token Booth on the IND & 
lines. One of these degenerates squirted gasoline from a soda bottle
into the coin slot and ignited it, hoping to force out the token clerk.
Instead, it causing a flammable vapor explosion, literally blowing the token booth apart, of which a photo can be seen at right.
A
scene in the movie
"Money Train", bore striking resemblance to this incident; and the
NYCTA as a matter of record, objected to the scene in the script and asked it be removed, as
well as refused to allow the film crew of the movie to film that
sequence on NYCTA property; in the hopes to avoid
"copycatting".
Removal of the scene was refused on the part of the studio; and
the movie crew shot the scene on a stage instead.
| 
November 26, 1995 Kingston - Throop Station Token Booth
courtesy of NY Daily News |
Obviously; it had still provided new inspiration to a couple of savages, and they attempted it. Despite the clerk surviving
the blast, he died the next day. The automatic fire suppression system?
It had been disabled by a employee who was cigarette smoker.
This type of crime happened a few more times after this occasion, with one of
the last taking place in 2002. But rigid enforcement of not covering up the flame sensors, and the installation of closed
circuit TV monitors to record outside the token booths and capture on video
the face(s) of the perpetrator(s) for positive identification and incontrovertible evidence acted sufficiently as a deterrent.
The advent of electronic
/ digital fare collection systems and its reduction of cash on hand as well as the elimination of the token, eliminated any significant and immediate financial gain in holding up the token booth..
.Token Sucking
In the realm of transit crimes, there is one in particular that
leaves a distinct, disgusting flavor in our mouths. No, seriously; for
real...
Down on their luck vagrants,
transients, drug addicts needing quick cash for a fix, and extremely
low echelon criminals with no other experience in crime; would jam the
token slot with a piece of paper or a foil gum wrapper, and they would
go stand in a corner inconspicuously of the payment area.
A passenger would come along, and deposit their token. But it would not fall
through to the operating mechanism, with the turnstile remaining locked
and leaving the passenger with in an inoperable turnstile and no
access to the platform.
Some frustrated
passengers would try to place a second or even a third token in an
attempt to gain access to the subway. Upon this failing, they would
either grumble and switch to another turnstile and deposit yet another
token at their expense; or they would grumble and go to the token clerk
to complain, in the hopes of either getting a replacement token or be
let through the automatic gate.
In the time period
between the clerk coming out of the booth to chain off the turnstile
from further use (and calling a turnstile maintenance person come for
repair); the "token sucker" would place his or her mouth over the
token slot, and sucked the token(s) out.
The
token(s) were then used by the token sucker to ride the subway for
themselves; or more commonly, sold at reduced cost to strangers on the street. There
were even somewhat organized "token fencers", that these tokens suckers
turned in their "haul" to, who after paying the token sucker, would
still sell the tokens but now with themselves taking a cut. Some New Yorkers are always looking for a good deal.
Token clerks, once they caught onto the practice; began putting
cayenne pepper, chili powder or other spicy or bitter powders or
liquids around the top of the token slot. Brush on nail biting / thumb
sucking deterrent (which was commonly available in drug stores) was a
popular favorite to discourage token sucker from plying their trade. It
would dry on the turnstile and reconstitute when some degenerates' wet
lips were placed over the slot.
This rather repulsive practice ultimately ended with the discontinuation of tokens in 2003..
.
Inside Jobs
Despite being bonded and
insured for handling revenue; there have been a
significant amount of incidents, in which the temptation would get the
better of change and token clerks.
Over the last century and a half, and in the course of their
duties; several
now former employees skimmed cash and / or tokens. Some, stand out:
In 1937, an IND Lines maintenance man was found embezzling nickels out
of turnstiles and turning the coin counter back to cover up his thefts.
He was dismissed. Two years later, after trying to deposit various
amounts into several different banks totaling $25,000; it was further determined he
purchased a two homes, an automobile, paid cash for an appendectomy and
regularly made $50 to $70 bets at the racetrack from the proceeds of
his thefts over the 5 years he was employed. That's a lot of nickels..
(This case may be related to the next, but no mention of this persons
name or details from this case are mentioned in the next article.)
In January 1939, an internal investigation began when
a discrepancy of $300,000 in fares and the turnstile counters was discovered. Further investigation by the
District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey discovered the embezzlement began
5 years prior and totaled $1.3 million - equal to 3% of gross fare
receipts for that year.
It was discovered that the $13,000,000 had been embezzled from
turnstiles by the collusion of up to thirty IND station agents, clerks
and maintenance men. That's 26,000,000 nickels total, or 5,200,000 nickels per year. That many nickels weighs 286,000 pounds or 143 tons. Now, that's a lot of nickels!!!
On September 18, 1954 transit
employees passing a booth, noticed a line of approximately
40
passengers looking to purchase tokens with no one present in the booth,
which was locked. Upon investigating further, it was determined that the
enterprising but strange clerk made off with 8000 tokens (at 15 cents
each equaled $1200). And $35 in cash! It has
never been said all crooks were smart.
.
.
And speaking of inside
jobs...
But
the biggest crime that took place on the NYCTA, was not the heisting of
a money train or a hijacking a train of passengers for ransom
("gesundheit!" - the 1974 version is still the best!) ☺
It would
happen under their own roof, and under their own noses. In what I can only
describe as a combination of plots from Oceans 11 and the Keystone
Cops; one fateful weekend
in July 1979, the “practically
impenetrable” vaults at 370 Jay Street were
robbed of $600,000 of $10 bills weighing approximately 120 pounds. No
other denominations of currency were taken. No damage to any of the
strongboxes was evident. Access to the money room,
was
accomplished by through a hole through the wall from the women's
locker room. Who made the hole? Transit cops who locked themselves out
of the count room a few weeks prior, to go on a coffee run; had broken through the wall to get back in.
The details of the caper slowly came to light in the following
series of newspaper articles which, because of their slightly comedic
overtones, I have reproduced here to be read in their entirely. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or a cold drink - but don't lock yourself out of your room going to get it!
Ultimately, Transit Police Chief Sanford D. Garelik and his deputy were terminated. Ironically, all the Money Room
employees that were employed when the embezzlement took place,
remained employed. Over seven hundred employees were
fingerprinted, investigated and one allegedly failed their polygraph
test. However, there was insufficient information to issue an arrest
warrant.
The
incident was never called a robbery within the TA; (and technically so,
the crime was of embezzlement if it was an inside job).
The only clues turned up a few weeks later - two empty
currency bags
similar to the ones used with the Revenue Department were found in a
motel room in New Jersey.
And as of composing this
chapter on September 17, 2022; the case remains unsolved.
Fare Miscellany
Station Entrance Globes
Introduced in early 1982 (March 8, 1982 New York Times), colored
fare globes were
introduced. Because these fare globes were directly related to the
token booth being staffed or not, I felt it was worthy of inclusion on
this website.
These
colored globes were installed in response to two factors: 1) passengers
entering an unattended station and not being able pay their
fare to board the trains, especially late at night; and 2) as crimes
were
being committed at unattended locations where there were minimal foot
traffic and no transit employee on duty.
For this system, the color of the cube shaped globe flanking the staircases up to an
elevated or down to a subway would indicate if that particular
subway or elevated station entrance was attended by a token clerk or
not.
This first system consisted of three colors:
This system was carried over to the newer round globe style lights:
courtesy of the New York Post
.
In the 1990's, the system
was revised to a two color system, and only the top half of the globe
was colored - the bottom half was now white to allow more downward
white
light and better illumination of the staircases, and the yellow
indication was abolished, which was causing confusion in daylight
conditions, as it could appear off white in daytime, and especially
under sodium vapor street lamps at night which can cast a pinkish
orange hue; and therefore give no indication of the
service type.
Furthermore,
station design would not necessarily dictate a round globe being
employed, as square sconces were installed at some subway stations as
can be seen at the 181st Street Station on the IND Line below.
Erroneous posts made by the Transit Museum on Facebook and corresponding correct information As
stated in the introduction of this website, one of the most unfortunate
and frustrating things that take place, is the repetitious posting of
erroneous information in social media. This holds doubly true when the New York Transit
Museum is the one making the erroneous posts on their own Facebook page.
With all due consideration and utmost respect for the salaried
employees as well as
the volunteers who donate their time and work hard for one of the best
Rapid Transit
Museums
in the United States, the posting of erroneous information on their
part is
especially grievous, considering they have all the resources necessary
pertaining to their own history.
The Transit Museum has the interns, docents
and personnel with higher education degrees to facilitate a correction.
Furthermore, how much could the expenses possibly amount to, in changing
the wording in a display placard in the museum or on their posts? What we are
discussing here; it's a cheap fix. Actually, no cost at all when it comes to posts on Facebook.
I expect some little three active
member railroad museum in West Bumblescum, where the main display is a
dusty HO Scale railroad layout to not do their homework. But the Transit Museum of all places? I
am not talking about a typo here - I'm talking about blatant erroneous information; of which is easily
disproved by open source documents - like a newspaper archives, Google Books, Google Patents or even the NYCTA's
own published documents.
What makes it more egregious, is when the Transit Museum makes a
post that directly contradicts a previous post they made a few months
before, for example: their post that "there were six token designs", yet
another post a few months before shows a plaque on display in the
museum with seven designs (and for the record, that plaque itself is missing a few
designs for the actual eleven designs token the NYCTA used since 1953!) Established historians have been available to them for decades. They have donated their time, and contributed research and materials. Attempts have been made
numerous times over the years by these previous historians; and now myself; to forward
corrections for events taking place in the present day; but they apparently fall on deaf ears. And so, when the Museum gets it wrong and will
not accept corrections in good faith and voluntarily correct them; no other avenue is left, but the following.
I will
compile their errors here in a table, with
a brief rebuttal and links to the appropriate chapters on this website
that further define and explain the correction to their error in
length. This is not a matter of
interpretation like with an art or a film critic or even legal findings. Again, when the pertinent
facts and dates are easily researchable through independent reputable
sources, there is no excuse. This is what historians and curators are
for. This is where outside consultants come to be of some use. There
is little one can do but hope someone at the Museum finds this website for this accurate
information and takes the appropriate steps. Whoever that may be, you are more than welcome and invited to contact me at your convenience.
I would be more than honored to be consulted and without charge. All I am interested in is accuracy.
Accuracy
in regards to history is paramount to being a good historian. Sensationalism
may sells newspapers - but accurate history makes a historian or museum
credible. Likewise, genuine mistakes are forgivable, but repeating
those mistakes after an organization or museum has been informed of
that error? Not so much.
Since we must choose our battles; only the posts pertaining to
fare issues will be addressed here. Those errors and corrections will strictly pertain to
fares & revenue - I'll let someone else fret about subway car build
dates, dates of station openings, route designations and when they changed, etc.
Please note, I have attempted to find
the oldest postings, to further reinforce how long this erroneous
information has been circulating. It should be noted the Transit Museum
reposts the same basic post on the annual anniversary of each occasion.
(2022) | Small
paper tickets were not discontinued in 1920, and continued to be used
until at least 1956; even longer if you count large format
block tickets and general order tickets, which are still issued. |
- Paper
tickets were issued by both the private operators of the subway lines:
continuously since inception: the IRT, BMT and the Board of
Transportation in 1940; tickets were used on connecting elevated trains
transversing over the Brooklyn Bridge at Sands Street Terminal and Park
Row and were used until 1944, when elevated service ceased over the
bridge. (Trolleys would remain until 1950 and offered paper transfers.)
- The
use of paper tickets for general fare payment were again issued in 1940
for 5 cents and 10 cent tickets which issued in 1948, by the Board of
Transportation for payment of fare on subways and elevated as well as
surface methods.
- 15
cent tickets were issued by the Transit Authority as late as June 1956
and circulated concurrently with tokens, although not as wide spread.
- Ticket
choppers were used on the Manhattan Elevated as far back as 1879. The
Manhattan Elevated was a predecessor operation (and absorbed by the
Interborough
Rapid Transit in 1903 prior to the opening of the IRT subway). The
ticket chopper design used by the IRT was patented in March 1894. - Ticket
choppers remained in regular service until 1928, (the first ticket
chopper was installed in May 1921) when the final turnstiles were
installed in the last of the stations.
- Ticket
choppers were used again when the 7 cent combination tickets (surface
to rapid transit) were issued in 1948, and through 1952.
- Ticket
choppers appear to have been used as late as the 1960's, in the IND
Fulton Line Franklin Avenue Station for continuing ride transfers
issued from the BMT Franklin Avenue Station (Franklin Avenue
Shuttle) but this is anecdotal recollection, and has not been proved
conclusively.
|
issued 1940 - 1944 |
. . | issued 1940 - 1948
| 
issued 1948 - 1953
| reverse of 5¢ and 10¢ tickets at left
| . . | issued 1953 to at least June 1956
| reverse of 15¢ ticket at left
|
|
|
 | | There is more than a "two part process" in manufacturing of tokens: Steps 3 to 12 are the actual token manufacturing process not including inspecting and packaging. | | 1. | Smelting: | The
base metal is manufactured by the mill, where the appropriate
metals are melted together. This could be all brass (copper and zinc)
for most NYCTA tokens,
a bronze (copper & tin); or a magnetically attractive metal such as
cupro-nickel for magnetic discrimination like the Five Borough Token,
or white metal (mostly nickel) as used for the small Special Fare
token.
Other metals were used by other transit companies in New York City. | | 2. | Hot Rolling: | This liquid metal is then poured and formed into rolls. | | 3. | Cold Rolling: | After cooling and shipping to the token manufacturer, the rolls of
metal are unrolled, straightened and sent through pressure rollers to
squeeze the metal to specified thickness. | | 4. | Cutting:
| Unrolled material is then either cut into plates, or fed continuously from the roll to the next process: | | 5. | Blanking: | The punching out of blank planchets (blank coins) takes place | | 6. | 1st Punching: | (if required): in the case of the Bullseye tokens, the center is punched out. | | 7. | Plug Inserting: | The magnetic metal insert "plug" is pressed into place. | | 8. | Edging: | The planchets are now passed through edge rollers to form the smooth
edge, which have been slightly jagged and sharp until now from the
blanking process. | | 9. | Annealing: | Edged planchets are heated in an annealing process. | | 10. | Coining: | The planchets now enter the die press where impression of the front (obverse) and back (reverse) designs takes place. | | 11. | Aligning for 2nd Punching: | In tokens that require a punch out design, like the small and large Y
cutout tokens or the Diamond Jubilee; and when specified by contract,
the token is aligned to the punch.
(Some tokens do not need to be aligned before
second punching like in the case of the 5 Boro Token) | | 12. | 2nd Punching: | The second punch process is accomplished. | | 13. | Inspection: | Tokens are now inspected by high speed camera equipment and air jets, which blow defective pieces out of scanning stream.
Prior to this method; inspection was performed manually. | | 14. | Counting and Bagging: | Finished and inspected tokens now dumped into a counting machine and bagged, sealed and ready for shipment to the customer. |
|
|
 | - There
were 11 token designs - not 6; (and this does not include minor
die varieties, which increases the
total to 18 varieties).
|
|
 | - The
"small Y cutout" was not the first token released by the NYCTA, the "small
Y solid" was. Because of the short time span between the announcement of the
raise in fare to 15 cents and the date it went into effect
(approximately 6 weeks) the three token manufacturers that won the
contracts could not produce enough of the small Y cutout tokens in the alloted time(as
they required the extra steps of alignment and punching) in time for
circulation, so the small Y token was released first as it could be produced quicker. In
September 1953, when the TA had received sufficent delivery of the small
Y cutouts, and then the small Y solids were removed from
circulation.
This post usually has an image of the small Y cutout token accompanying it; and appears every July 25th.
|
.
.
In the late 1800's, the numerous franchise operators
were
independent of each other and very often in great competition
to
one another. Different companies operated surface lines right under the
elevated railroads. On busy streets many franchises shared trackage
rights and shared the same rails.
Through the greatness of the American system of capitalism;
many
companies vied for a piece of the pie. When first opened, a company may
only consist of one route. Over time, that company acquired another or
was
itself was acquired by another.
Some companies kept
the acquired operation as a subsidiary which kept its name, or merged
it
with another route and changing name, or outright dissolving it and
adding the route to its own. By the turn of the 19th Century, the
corporate flow chart of transit companies in New York was, to say the
least; befuddling. Completely separate companies would have similar
names. Over
half of the operations in Brooklyn had the place names
"Brooklyn",
"South Brooklyn" and "Coney Island" in their company title.
And when
time came for a reorganization; you could find yourself with a South
Brooklyn Railway and South Brooklyn Street Railroad; both of which
belonged to two separate entities until the First Unification in 1940
(actually before that with the formation of Brooklyn Rapid Transit, but
let us not make matters even more confusing).
Chart of
Mergers & Acquisitions
The
following chart from 1908 shows the complicated and muddled parentage,
acquisitions and lessees of the various subway, elevated and streetcar
lines in Manhattan. Please note, some of the early Bronx traction
companies that merged into the Union Railway were not reflected, so I
have added them for thoroughness. Keep in mind this chart
above was only for Manhattan and the Bronx organizations,
and many very early companies are not shown.
Even more confusing was the organizational
structure for the elevated and surface lines for Brooklyn. Perhaps even more so, as
some entities were nothing more than holding companies for operating
lines leased from one company using the trackage of yet a third
company.
The following graphic should assist the New York City transit
buff or historian understand the pedigree of the various transportation
companies that operated in Brooklyn:
Slowly
but surely and as time marched on; companies were being consolidated
around the city.
As more and more of the New York City center; that is south
(downtown) Manhattan to current Midtown; became "improved"
and
built upon, urban sprawl meant the "city" (Manhattan) expanded
north. Subways were popular in southern "Downtown" Manhattan
because of the vast development boom that had already taken place.
But further north in Manhattan and in the outlying boroughs
of Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens,
elevated lines took form as it was significantly more cost effective to
build girders up, than to excavate down or tunnel through rock;
especially so through undeveloped or farm land. While the elevateds in
Manhattan are all but demolished, several remain in Brooklyn, Bronx and
Queens and still survive.
.
The Coney
Island Double Fare Riots: 1900 - 1910
.
.
 |
 |
Commutation Tickets for
passengers that resided south of 22nd Avenue / Kings Highway Station.
All other passengers must pay the extra 5 cent fare to Coney Island.
(shown enlarged to 150% ) |
On or about May 26, 1900, Brooklyn Rapid Transit (and
its operating subsidiary Brooklyn Heights Railroad) decided to charge
a double fare on cars over its lines bound to Coney Island. It may not
seem like it now, but 10 cents (that's one way mind you!) in 1900 was
serious money.
Adjusted for inflation, this equates to $3.53 in 2022 terms, and over
$7.00 dollars round trip (even though in todays economy, $3.53 does not
seem like much).
To
run on
the Culver Line, (which keep in mind
was still a surface railroad, the elevated did not open to service
until
1919), elevated cars were equipped with
trolley poles to allow the cars to use both third rail pick ups
during elevated running on the Fifth Avenue Elevated, as well as use
overhead trolley wire during
surface running east of there. A track connection at Fifth Avenue and
38th Street allowed
Fifth Avenue Elevated
cars to travel down a ramp and enter the street trackage of the Culver
Line, where they were able to continue to
Coney Island on the surface. Elevated cars offered a
higher passenger capacity
than trolley cars of the era, and were often run in sets of three, four
or five; with five cars being the standard.
By 1907, the following surface car lines offered
service to Coney Island. Those using the Culver Line are so noted:
- Tompkins
Avenue
- Nostrand
Avenue
- Union
Street
- Ninth
Avenue
- Court
Street
- 39th
Street
- Reid
Avenue
- 15th
Street
- Vanderbilt
Avenue
- Third
Avenue
High speed elevated 'L' train routing are as follows (five
cars per train):
- Sea
Beach (via Sea Beach Line)
- West
End (via West End Line)
- Fifth
Avenue (via Culver Line - Gravesend Avenue)
At this point in time, Coney Island was an extremely popular
attraction and
recreational destination, especially during the summertime.
Dozens to hundreds of thousands of people would flock there to enjoy
seafood, the cool ocean water, clean sand, amusement parks and rides and resort hotels along the
seashore; along with more moderately priced sleeping facilities
slightly inland.
At first, most passengers acquiesced and paid the double fare;
those few with the financial wherewithal, peaceably filed
lawsuits against the BRT. Numerous
court hearings
over this double fare argument were held and worked their way up to the
Kings County (Brooklyn) Supreme Court, the Appellate Court, to the
Attorney General of the State of New York, and the Public Service
Commission; and the right to charge or not
charge
the double fare see-sawed between court decisions.
The BRT made its case as such: because the railroads were
originally chartered as steam railroads under the General Railroad Act
of 1850, and by the original charters were allowed to collect
additional fares upon train exiting the old "City limits" (of
Brooklyn), they
could charge zoned fares up to 3 cents per mile in addition to the 5
cent fare. It was not until 1890 a new railroad law was enacted as
Chapter 252 of the Laws of 1884, that "no corporation constructing or
operating a railroad under these provisions shall charge any passenger
more than 5 cents for a continuous ride", and the lines that the BRT
were charging the double fare on, pre-existed this law. It is noted in
those cases where a company incorporated as
streetcar operation could not charge this double fare; despite the fact
that many of the steam railroads were converted to electricity and now
operating streetcars! Several
lines originating in downtown Brooklyn and ending at North Beach or
Flushing in Queens similarly collected double fares, one line even
subject to a triple fare.
The
first round went to the passengers - in a lawsuit filed by
ex-State Senator Peter H. McNulty and heard by Justice Dickey; found
the
double fare illegal. But
Justice Dickey did not grant the requested injunction. Instead,
he advised the proper course of action was to have the Attorney General
to annul
the BRT charter. So the BRT kept on charging the double fare and filed
an appeal. To which it was granted relief and still continued
to
collect the ten cent fare. Another
lawsuit brought, wound its way to the Appellate Court again, where
Justice Gaynor (who was to become Mayor of New York City) once again
found the double fare was illegal. But, again no injunction.
By now, July 2, 1904, things
really came to a head: the public interpreted the latest
Appellate Court decision, that the 10 cent fare really was illegal; no
ifs, ands or buts. The BRT however
did not
see it that way, and since they had not been ordered not to
collect it, they were going to continue to collect it; willingly, or
forcefully if required. Their interpretation was that it was only the
"opinion" of the Justice. The BRT responded by hiring and employing
"Inspectors", or
as called by the newspapers "bouncers". But by their despicable
actions
you are about to read, and in any other
definition; equates to hired
goons, thugs or arm breakers.
These "Inspectors" are described as large
men, known for their brawn and not so much for their finesse.
Another factor that cropped up, was the BRT "Special Police"
formed a
cordon around the cars that the "Inspectors boarded", and prevented
newspapermen from interviewing the passengers. These "Inspectors" and
"Special Police" were somehow authorized to wear badges to make them
look more authoritative.
So, the BRT kept on trying to
collect the extra fare, and the more resolute of those passengers refused
to pay, citing that recent court ruling.
Culver Line - Gravesend
Neck Road
On the Culver Line, these extra fares were collected
by conductors on board the cars. The conductors "first request" began
at Kings
Highway and Gravesend
Avenue (now McDonald Avenue).
The next stop after
Kings Highway was Avenue U. The conductor would come
through the car again, requesting the extra fare. By now some paid, but
the more stalwart passengers refused. The
next stop was Gravesend Neck Road (or "Neck Road" for short). Here, the
"Inspectors"
boarded the car at this stop. The
conductor would come through the car again, requesting the extra fare.
But now, when a passenger refused the to pay the extra fare, the
conductor pointed
at
you; and an Inspector (or two or three) took position in front of you.
You were now ordered to pay; brusquely and one time
only, by some huge guy with a protruding forehead, heavy eyebrows, no
neck, broad shoulders and hairy knuckles (and of whom was
maybe one generation advanced from Cro-Magnon): "Pay! Or Get
Off!"
If
you refused to
pay at this point; you were physically picked up by a
couple of these "Inspectors"; and dragged, carried, pushed,
shoved and / or thrown off the car.
Some of the more brutal of these "Inspectors" stood at the top step of
the trolley car and tossed you off. If you didn't land on your feet, oh
well; it wasn't their problem - you didn't pay your fare.
Without any room for doubt, these
"Inspectors" were very enthusiastic about their work; as entire car loads of
passengers were displaced by force. Even
women were equally manhandled and thrown to the ground, with or without
husbands or escorts; even those
holding children, including mothers and grandmothers. Anyone
that refused to pay were
literally and physically thrown off. And a lot of people
were getting hurt. Seriously hurt. One woman, the wife of the engineer
of
the Coney Island Water Works; suffered a broken clavicle, broken knee
cap and other internal injuries after being physically picked up and
thrown to the pavement; she was not expected to live. These were not one or
two
isolated cases; it was taking place on every car, almost every day.
These
incidents seem to pick up in the summer months when people were
flocking to Coney Island for the summer.
The BRT "Special Policemen"; who
after the "Inspectors" got you off the car; arrested you for not
payment and dragged you to the local police
station. Until this point, the Police Department of the City of New
York pretty
much were hands off, until a passenger actually tried to defend
themselves and fight back. Then that person was arrested for breaking
the
peace, disorderly conduct, trespassing or battery.
But, that aside; the NYPD seemed to
take the side of the BRT. Tammany Hall was still at the height of its
power. Some lower echelon precinct lieutentants stepped in and would
try to prevent the "Inspectors" from physical altercations, but these
officers were usually reprimand by the captain and reassigned. It would
not be until the Deputy Commissioner arrived on scene several hours
later to issue orders for members of NYPD to stop all acts of violence,
no matter who initiated it.
Sea Beach Line
- at the Coney Island Terminal
On
the Sea Beach Line (also
a surface railroad) things were a little different. Passengers
were still required to purchase the extra fare on the train at the
Twenty-second Avenue Station. If you did pay your extra fare, the
conductor issued you a ticket. But if you refused, no
"Inspectors" boarded like on the Culver Line. When the train arrived at the Sea Beach / West
End / Stillwell Terminal, the car or train pulled
into one of the platforms and you
disembarked. But before you actually entered the station structure,
you encountered a gate and the attending gatemen standing next
to
a ticket chopper box. If you paid your extra fare on the train, you
gave him you ticket and you were permitted into the station to exit to
the street.
But if you did not have a extra fare
ticket, you were instructed to buy one. If you refused here, an
"Inspector" escorted you to the holding pen. Usually, by force. At the height
of the protests (1904 - 1906); the holding pen at times would have
100-150 people in it, standing room only, refusing to pay.
One of two things
happened here:
those less patient and the more wavering of the protesters paid up
their extra 5 cent fare, and were released from
"holding pen" into the station and free to leave to the street. The
more
steadfast passengers would be taken to the local police station,
arrested, then released to appear before a magistrate to plead their
case against the extra 5 cent fare.
Another lawsuit, another decision. On
August 12, 1906,
Justice Gaynor of the Appellate Court ruled against the BRT, but again
did
not file an injunction preventing the BRT from collecting the extra
five cents. Once again, the BRT refused to cease collecting the extra
fare stating it was merely the opinion of the Justice. Borough
President Bird S. Coler who was riding in one of the cars, and of whom
was refusing to pay. He was put off, was but not before his
wife
was manhandled by the "Inspector".
The day of August 12,
1906 was the worst of the worst. I'll let the following
New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper articles published on the following day tell it:
.
.
As we are too aware, images from this era are few and far between. As you can imagine, any
photography about this time was rare occurrence and what did occur, was
almost always posed / portraiture due to the exposure times necessary.
"Action" photography was almost unheard of.
To
the
best of my research thus far, what follows are the only existing images
of
the "BRT Double Fare Riots". None seem to have been published in any of
the Brooklyn or New York City newspapers of that time that carried
coverage. And as I have noted before, this was the worst day - these
riots took place on other days since 1900 when the double fare was instituted, and usually right after the courts ruled in favor of the passenger.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Bob Singleton of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, who was generous enough to send first generation scans of the postcard set. Reuse / reposting is prohibited
without the express consent of the Mr. Singleton and the GAHS. I had
the courtesy to ask and went through the effort, and so should you.
This series of photos were taken by an unidentified photographer (possibly
Edwin Levick; a historical photographer of the era) who positioned himself
in the second story window of the "Hubbard House" at the southwest
corner of Gravesend Avenue (present McDonald Avenue) and Gravesend Neck
Road.
This series of images were then reproduced on a set of "real photo
postcards" (or "RPPC's) and are extremely rare and highly collectible.
There are about 19 or 20 images in the set; but I have only posted the best
representations of that days events, and of which are shown here. Due to their age, they have been adjusted for contrast.
On August 18th, Justice Gaynor repeated that the collection
of 10
cent fare was illegal, but advised the public to submit and temporarily
pay the 10 cents until the Attorney General could hear the case. Now
the BRT said the Attorney General didn't have the authority to hear the
case, but drew up rebate checks if the fare was found to be illegal.
The case against the double fare dragged onwards and upwards;
on
January 9, 1907 Judge Haight of the New York State Court of Appeals
ruled the 10 cent fare was legal. Through to the Public Service
Commission, who
finally ruled on March 9, 1910 that the 10 cent fare to and from Coney
Island was not unfair; so in essence, the BRT won.
The BRT would go to pay
the
medical bills of some of the more seriously injured passengers. It
offered some
experimental fare breaks on elevated lines to Coney Island, such as
offering
a 10 cent round trip from August 1 through October 1. But this peace
offering was made with with fingers crossed behind the back: the Coney
Island bound ticket was only good from 6:00 to 9:00 am and the return
trip
only valid 2:00 to 4:30 pm, on the same day. To
reiterate, Coney Island was a resort
at this time. Many people stayed overnight or even two nights in a
hotel. So in most cases, the return
trip was useless, unless of course you were now willing to make is a
1/2 day excursion.
Then the BRT offered 5 cent
fares on its surface lines, but you had to take three different cars:
Eastbound passengers on the 65th Street and Bay Ridge Lines could
transfer free at Thirteenth Avenue and 86th Street car, and
take that to the 39th Street Ferry Line of the Nassau Electric
RR
Co. (which was another company held by the BRT!) which would carry them
to Coney Island. Westbound passengers would have to board the Nassau
Electric RR Co.'s 39th Street Ferry Line to Bay 39th Street and Ulmer
Park, transfer to the 65th Street and Bay Ridge Line of the BRT.
Incidentally, neither of these routes fell upon the Culver or Sea Beach
routes. And these exact same routes existed before and during the
August riots.
No true solution would be found. The BRT would continue to
charge
10 cents for the Coney Island bound cars on the Culver & Sea
Beach
lines. It was only once the Culver Elevated was completed to the
Stillwell Depot on May 1, 1920, that collection of the double
fare
was abolished.
BRT may have won the
battle, but it lost the war.
And finally, the Coney
Island 10 cent fare war was truly over. Ironically, a
year and a half earlier, on
December 31, 1918; the
BRT filed for bankruptcy. Between
its bad reputation over the double fare riots and over extension of
resources into subway construction and management, it was no longer
financially solvent. Its reorganization into Brooklyn Manhattan
Transit was finalized with new officers on June 15, 1923.
The BMT, by
charter of the Dual Contracts and by Mayor John Francis Hylan's
influence of office (1/1/1918-12/31/25) could charge no more
than 5 cent fare for subways.
Mayor John F. Hylan was a very strong proponent for the 5
cent fare. His direct
involvement beginning in 1921 ensured that following the BRT bankruptcy
and
reorganization into Brooklyn Manhattan Transit, the 10 cent fares to
Coney
Island and Queens would not be repeated. While this was
commendable
from a city resident / passenger standpoint, it did fail to take into
consideration the effect of inflation.
In 1932, the City of New York, created
built and opened the IND Subway, maintaining the 5 cent fare edict;
while the
privately owned BRT and IRT, still forced by the Dual Contracts to hold
their fares at 5 cents were once again swimming in deficit. Each time
these companies
went to the Public Service Commission for a fare raise, it was
denied. It took nearly 25 years
for the IRT to
develop financial problems. A lawsuit to raise the
fare to 7
or 8 cents was
long fought and eventually lost
by the IRT at the Supreme Court level, but not before several million
nice IRT tokens were minted in anticipation of that fare raise, only to
remain in storage when it was denied.
Nobody likes paying more
for a product, especially so since it had been cheap for so long, but
forcing
the 5 cent fare to remain in effect, while the cost of operations and
labor
rose; was undeniably poor fiscal judgment.
For
at least a decade, the fare
was locked at 5 cents and one can only tighten the belt so much, before
you
must reduce service, not give raises, layoff employees, close
underutilized lines, and delay maintenance
on equipment etc.
The City operated the IND,
which for all intents and purposes was a rapid transit (subway /
elevated) only
operation. Bus
operations were
franchised out to private companies alleviating the IND from that
responsibility.
Furthermore, the city could raise taxes, franchise rates or transfer
budget surpluses and finances from other departments to the subway
operation. Robbing Peter to pay Paul so to say.
The
IRT and the BMT were not only
operating rapid transit services, but surface transit operations as
well. And
they did not have the benefit of other non-transit operations to
redirect finances to their transit
operations, not to mention in continuing to pay dividends to their
stock holders. This added to the expense
side of their ledgers.
Also around
this time, many
of the elevated lines became redundant with subway or bus
lines, so down they came. One by one, the
elevated lines in Manhattan, which were
considered noisy and an eyesore; were eventually all
demolished. For Manhattan to
develop into the metropolis of the late 20th Century, those elevated
lines that had been built
in the 1880s needed to go, and between 1930 and 1940; most did.
By
1940, the two private subway operators and dozens of traction
companies were struggling and entering receivership. Thus, it was also the
time of the "First Unification".
First Unification:
The Board of Transportation - 1940
.
.
Any
fiscal item that bears the legend: "City of
New
York, Board of Transportation, New York City Transit SYSTEM",
is
from this era of operation: 1940 through 1953.
The City of New
York - Board of
Transportation - New York City Transit System or "BOT" was originally
created in 1922 to
plan, build and
operate the City owned subway interests, of which it constructed the
IND Subway - Eighth Avenue Line. At this time it was known as the
Independent City-Owned Subway System "ICOS", or the less popularly
known "ISS" which stood for Independent Subway
System. There are even references to it as
Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad.
This line however would not open to
service until September 10, 1932, and additional extensions to this
line as well would open frequently after, but the next trunk line
(Sixth Avenue) would open in 1936 and gradually be extended. While the
IND
was enjoying a modicum of success, the IRT and
BMT,
and the myriad of surface lines not owned by the City of New York began
showing signs of struggle.
These struggling private transit "interests" after having
been
limited to the 5 cent fare agreement under the Dual Contracts, were
slowly starving. Upon their filing bankruptcy, they were taken
over by a receiver.
The ultimate goal was to
get the bankrupt transit operations into the hands of the Board of
Transportation. Once there, the bankrupt operations would be
merged with and unified into the BOT and this took place on June 1,
1940. On this day, in
one fell swoop, this solved most if not all of the issues regarding
competitive subway operations in the City of New York. The subways were
under the control of a single entity.It was at this time, the
very popular and still used moniker was coined: the "IND" for INDependent
Subway System.
For the next two years, the City of New York, through the
BOT;
financed long needed repairs, improvements and ordered new rolling
stock to replace pre-war equipment. But this period of
investment would be short lived. With
the entrance of the United States into World War II in
December 1941, and with it; the subsequent rationing of
materials, what
with raw materials shifted to war production needs, men drafted into
service
and other war effort occupations; all construction ceased on projects
already underway and future plans put on indefinite hold.
Despite this, transit operations in New York City
did
well financially, assisted greatly by the rationing of tires, gasoline,
and lubricating oil. As the private automobile became a burden during
these
times, not so much out of cost, but the lack of materials and
replacement parts. Gasoline, tires, oil: everything was geared now for
the war effort. This
pushed the city population to utilize mass transit. The transit
operators saw profits, and did well.
With most of the population of New York City pretty much
stuck at
home with little gasoline and four bald tires, there was no better
place for respite and "seashore therapy" of which existed at the
beaches
located around the City: Coney Island, Brighton, Manhattan, Orchard,
Pelham Bay Park, Rockaway, Jacob Riis Park & Beach. If you took
the
ferry over to Staten Island, South and Midland beaches were there too.
And the city transit system was there to take them on their journey.
But wars don't last forever. The war may have ended in 1945,
but
getting supplies to the civilian projects back up to speed took a
while. Beginning in 1947, the Board of
Transportation found itself slowly
acquiring bus operators in Staten Island, Queens and Manhattan that
could no longer afford to operate. None of
the companies could operate on the mandated five cent fare, and the
equipment they had; which had been kept running through the war era on
spit and baling wire repairs were in desperate need of
replacement. So, they filed
for bankruptcy. This slowly gave the City control of the majority of
surface transit operations.
With these increased
operations, came financial expenditures. The BOT posted it first
operational deficit in 1947 in the amount of $18,000,000. Another
victim of cost cutting measures, was scrapping of the
duplicitous
elevated lines which actually started before the war, and with the war
the steel structures became prized.
A fare increase was proposed to alleviate the mounting debt
that
was due to
post-war inflation; as well as expenditures for acquiring new rolling
stock to replace
the now dilapidated existing equipment; the repair of existing
infrastructure that maintenance of had been deferred due to lack of
labor and materiél that had been needed for the military; as well as
the planning for and expansion of existing services and
routes.
.
.
The
first of many - a raise in fare to 10 cents
 |
On
March 30, 1948, Governor Thomas E.
Dewey signed legislation allowing the Board of Transportation to
increase fares.
This was subject to
the approval of the Mayor William O'Dwyer, of whom granted his consent
and on July 1. So, the Board of Transportation immediately
began
to make the necessary changed to the turnstiles to accept dimes.
On Thursday, July 1, 1948 the fare was officially
10 cents. The nickel subway fare and of
which had been in place since October 27,
1904 - a period of 45 years - and a provision of the Dual Contracts;
was no more. But remember - the
elevateds were ten cents back in the 1880's, so this was not the first
time mass transit fares were a dime.
Equally as notable was that the City of New York
was the
last major metropolitan transit system to charge 5 cents - all other
major cities had since raised their fares.
It must also be kept in
mind, the fare only went to 10 cents on the subways and
elevateds - the
fare was "only" raised to 7 cents on the buses and trolleys.
The Board of Transportation also instituted some
changes to help offset the raise in fare, such as low cost inter-system
transfers from rapid transit operations to surface operations and vice
versa.
These were the small format tickets purchased for 2 cents
allowing
transfer from rapid transit to the surface lines, or purchased for 5
cents from the
surface lines to rapid transit.
 |
vertical:
Rapid Transit to Surface Line
|
.
. |
 |
horizontal:
Surface Line to Rapid Transit
|
Once again, the New York Times digital
archives furnished the following coverage, seen at right.
Also the BOT created fourteen free transfer points
between the formerly separate subway operating divisions.
On January 1,
1950; the fare on the surface lines (trolleys & buses) was
raised
to 10 cents to match its rapid transit counterparts, making for a
uniform 10 cent fare on rapid transit and surface
operations.
While this fare raise helped the fiscal situation, but its
effects were
not long lived as it was hoped. With the Second World War over
and thanks
to post war prosperity, "a
chicken in every pot and an automobile in every garage" was becoming a
reality. John Q. Public could now afford the modern
conveniences,
such as an automobile, and travel trailers.
Little stood in the way to stem
the tide of transit users that were leaving the system to purchase
these automobiles and with it, they were now also moving out to the
suburbia where the subways did not reach.
With this new found freedom,
day trips to the beach resorts at Coney Island or Orchard Beach, were
replaced with trips to farther destinations: the eastern shores of Long
Island, Upstate New York, or even other states.
The city residents on vacation no longer
had to settle for the day at the beach - it was now a day in the
mountains for fishing or camping, or visiting relations in other states
and stopping at the landmarks along the journey. These were places the
subways and buses couldn't take them.
On July 1, 1952, the inter-system transfers were eliminated,
forcing transit users back to a two fare system when using rapid
transit and surface transit.
|
 |
Even these changes did little ameliorate the growing
financial
debts of the Board of Transportation. And like pouring salt into and
open wound, the Board of Transportation was also the subject of
increased
criticism due to the influence of City politics, including the direct
control of the Mayor, and the use of the City's operating budget in
other areas to
subsidize transit operations.
Second
Unification: The Transit Authority - 1953
.
.
In March 1953, the New York State Legislature created the New
York City Transit Authority: a public benefit corporation without
direct control from any one political office. Members were appointed by
both the State and the City. Governor Dewey sign the bill on March 20,
1953. The New York City
Transit Authority (NYCTA) took control on June 15, 1953, with the Board of
Transportation - New York City
Transit System being abolished.
The
15 cent fare was not an "original idea" of the NYCTA, but had
been proposed by the Board of Transportation many months before. But,
by nature of its charter and a guaranteed 5 cent fare; the Board of
Transportation did not have the authority to raise the fare without
consent of the City of New York; specifically the Mayors office. With the approval of the New
York State Legislature, the dissolution of the Board of Transportation
and the creation of the NYCTA removed that obstacle.
This 1953 re-organization is also known as the Second
Unification.
One of the the first things this new organization announced was a
raise in fare, which was absolutely necessary to get the transit system
back on a profitable, or at the least; a break even status; and be able to update the infrastructure.
On July 25, 1953, the NYCTA fare was raised to 15 cents for
rapid
transit, and thus the first token was issued by the NYCTA - the 16.5mm
(slightly smaller than a dime) solid Y. This token issue was necessary
because the turnstiles were more easily
adapted to accept a single coin, than to take multiple size coins (i.e:
a
nickel and a dime or three nickels). I also reiterate again:
this was not the first token used in the transit
system, but the first token issued by NYCTA.
With this second unification; there was also a consolidation of a great deal of the
surface lines (some of which were still electrically powered
streetcars), but operationally
they remained as subdivisions (Brooklyn & Queens Transit, South
Brooklyn Railway, Brooklyn Bus Co. among others) while
others had
been converted to bus routes.
On top of this however, several transportation companies continued
to
operate bus franchise routes within the five boroughs, and remained
independent
of; or a subsidiary to the City administration. But we'll get to these private bus operators in
a bit.
Furthermore, Staten Island operations of both rapid transit
lines
and its surface lines were privately owned and not part of the NYCTA
for a quite while
after this due to the isolated nature of Staten Island. Staten Island
Rapid Transit remained under Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
parentage
which itself was owned in part by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Staten Island Rapid
Transit would not come under the NYCTA umbrella until 1971. The surface
lines on Staten Island would be operated by private franchise.
Also, while it is generally accepted the the NYCTA had a
unified
fare structure, it did not. Throughout its history, it charged special
fares and offered premium fare services: Aqueduct Racetrack
Special, JFK Express, Express Bus Services both within and between
Manhattan and outer boroughs.
Also during this era, the last electrically powered
streetcars in
Brooklyn ceased operation on October 31, 1956, and on April 6, 1957
between Manhattan and Welfare (Roosevelt) Island and were
replaced with internal combustion powered buses. (The Bronx was one
step ahead of this with the last trolley / streetcar being run on
August 21, 1948.)
In regard to "regular" fare service, the
NYCTA charged
a 5 cent extra fare on the Q44 bus line utilizing the Bronx-Whitestone
Bridge, and
charged a double fare on it trains between Howard Beach and the
Rockaways, which will be discussed in the following chapter.
Rockaway
Double Fare - June 28, 1956 - September 1, 1975
.
.
 |
 |
 |
 |
June 28, 1956 - July 4,
1966:
15¢ regular fare / 30¢ Rockaway fare |
July 5, 1966 - December
31, 1971
20¢ regular fare / 40¢ Rockaway fare |
January 1, 1972 -
September 2, 1975
35¢ regular fare / 70¢ Rockaway fare |
Rockaway Refund Ticket
Rock-1 |
The Rockaway Beach Line was unique to the single fare
rule on rapid transit lines for regular service.
This line was purchased for $8,500,000
from the Long Island Railroad after
several wood trestle fires. It was rebuilt at a cost of $57,000,000
with
fill and concrete trestles and connected to the IND Subway at Howard
Beach Station. It opened June 28, 1956 and charged an extra
token.
Originally
as proposed on February 16, 1956, it was supposed to
be a 40 cent fare each way: 15 cents for the regular subway, and an
additional 25 cents to be collected at Broad Channel.
This would be the first time
since the abolition of the BRT / BMT Coney Island Double Fare on May 1,
1920; that a zoned fare would be used for rapid transit lines.
There was sufficient
outrage at this (considering it
would cost 80 cents round trip for Rockaway residents, of which at the
time a good portion of Rockaway was lower income) was in no
doubt
justified. On March 30, 1956, the NYCTA relented to a degree and
reduced the fare to 30 cents each way.
Outrage still remained and a lawsuit filed, but on June 15, 1956; Supreme Court
(New York) Justice Schwartzwald found in favor of the NYCTA, adding
that the LIRR fare to the Rockaways was more. Fortunately, this quelled
most dissent, and there was not to be a repeat of the "Double Fare War"
like that seen on the route to Coney Island.
Passengers using this line
were charged a double fare south of the Howard Beach Station, which
entailed the deposit of two tokens for those entering along the line
between the Howard Beach Station and any of the stations south of that
point. For those already on board a southbound train from other parts of the
system
an additional token was payable upon exit at stations south of Howard
Beach..
For those passengers traveling only within the double-fare
zone
(between the Rockaways and Howard Beach Station) would request a
special "refund ticket", entitling them to a refund
upon exiting the system, either in cash or a token.
This double fare
was quite unpopular,
but things remained status quo for the July 5, 1969 raise in fare to
20¢ (40¢ for Rockaway Service). But following the January 1,
1972
raise in regular fare to 35¢ (and now 70¢ for Rockaway Service); the
matter was revisited following another lawsuit. The
NYCTA conducted a study that showed due to the increased population now
residing in the Rockaways, lowering the fare to regular amount would
not incur any undue loss of revenue, but the double fare would
not be abolished until September 1,
1975; of which coincided with a system-wide fare increase to 50¢; as
well as
an increase in tolls on the Cross Bay Bridge and Marine Parkway Bridges.
As for subway to bus transfers. it would not be until the
introduction of the MetroCard Gold
that a fare paying passenger within New York City would be able to
transfer from subway routes to bus routes, or vice versa; or be allowed to take
multiple buses on their journey, without having to pay a
second or even third fare.
For the sake of history, the NYCTA was to become an
"affiliate agency" of the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority in 1965, and
the Long Island Rail Road would be come a subsidiary
agencies of
the MTA in 1965, as did MetroNorth Commuter Railroad in 1971.
Exact
Fare - August 31, 1969
.
.
By 1966, a new problem surfaced - the armed robbery of bus
drivers. A robber or two would board, brandish a knife or gun, and
relieve the
driver of his change maker and the change within the farebox.
Remember,
at this time, the driver had access to the change to replenish his
change maker or to empty the farebox at the end of the route. When
aggregated at the end of a shift,
meant the fareboxes could hold a few hundred dollars.
Until this point, the issue was isolated to maybe two or
three drivers
getting robbed a year. But with the 1960's, crime exploded. The New York Times
reports 56 driver robberies in 1966, 97 in 1967, 244 in 1968 and 356 in
1969.
As the result of this, Johnson / Keene Farebox introduced
their
next model, with an enclosed pedestal and a two key lockable drawer
that acted as a vault. (see the chapter on Coins
& Tokens as General Fare Media - Surface
Fare Boxes for further information
and images.)
On
August 31, 1969, bus
drivers were relieved of the responsibility of making change, and buses went to exact
fare only.
|
|
2005: the
"Third Unification" - the Queens private franchise bus lines finally
fall under the MTA umbrella
For this chapter, it is first necessary to understand the history of
private
bus lines in New York City. And for that we have to return once again
to the beginning of transportation history in New York City so let us
turn back the clock 178 years.
Where it all started -
in Manhattan in 1827
If
one needed to travel more than a few blocks or farther than convenient
walking distance, a horse drawn omnibus
or stage was the optimal answer for travel.
Omnibuses were the predominate means
of mass transit within the developed areas of Manhattan (and even
through the rural areas).
They were convenient for both those who could not afford a
horsedrawn carriage of their own, or for those that could; not have the
time at that particular moment to
go to the stable, mount the riding tack (saddle) for direct riding on
the horse; or mount the harness to the horse(s) to attach the carriage,
etc.
One
reference source cites the first known stage line was introduced in
1827 by Abraham Brower. The route was along Broadway between Bowling Green and
Bleecker
and Prince Streets in front of Niblo's Garden, a popular theater of the era.
With some very tedious and in-depth research, of the New York
Times (then called the New York Daily Times); I was able to ascertain
fare for this first stage line: 12½ cents per passenger; remember - back in this era, the United States circulated a half cent coin.
The first street railway - The New York and Harlem Railroad; was
incorporated in 1831 and opened for service with a route from Prince
Street eventually extending to Harlem Bridge in 1837 (and eventually beyond).
|
image courtesy of Shorpy Photo Archives |
Fares were originally
18¾ cents to Yorkville and 20 cents to Harlem. This 18¾ cent fare is interesting in itself, as the US did not circulate a ¾ cent coin; so how payment of this fraction of a cent is not clear. Round trip would equal 37½ cents, so was this fare extrapolated from half a round trip fare?
Whichever and whomever it was, and ever since then, the City Council and the
Board of Aldermen, would award out contracts for additional
Manhattan
surface routes, upon being requested by an enterprise wishing to get
into the transportation scene.
By 1855, there were now
593
omnibuses traveling on twenty-seven routes throughout Manhattan; and
horse-drawn cars running on street railways on Third, Fourth, Sixth,
and
Eighth Avenues, and by 1859, the average fare was 6 cents on major routes and 3 or 4 cents on minor routes.
In 1900, omnibus operators were still
plying the routes as granted, whether it be the main north - south
arterial avenues, crosstown streets, or connecting with steam
ferry services crossing
Upper New York Bay, the Hudson and the East Rivers.
Also around this time, 1901 to be
exact; the City Charter was amended and the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment was created. This office would bear the authority
in issuing the necessary Certificates of Convenience and
Necessity to operate a surface transportation company whether
it
be on rails or
tires.
Horse drawn vehicles gave way to electric or
gasoline powered vehicles, just about the same time the
first subway was built and opened in 1904.
The
first successful motor bus route began operation in Manhattan in
1905, when the Fifth Avenue Coach purchase a fleet of fifteen DeDion
buses manufactured in France; and rapidly followed by 132 more;
followed by buses built by the English manufacturer Daimler.
In
the image at right, dated July 10, 1913 and courtesy of Shorpy
Historical
Photo Archives; we see a Daimler double decker bus on the left (with
right hand drive!) and original DeDion - Bouton (with left hand drive)
on right.
Note the snazzy bulb type
brass trumpet horn on the DeDion! Pay particular note to the sign board
on the side
under the windows: FARE TEN CENTS.
Now, it has long been said the Fiorello LaGuardia and Robert
Moses were the impetus behind the destruction of New York's streetcars
& trolley system. I have long believed this to be as well.
While they
certainly did not help the survival of the traction interests in the
least, and were certainly among the final people to drive the nail into
the coffin for streetcars; as we see from this New York Times
article dated August 28, 1924 and seen below; there was a call
for a network of
buses that early to replace the trolleys, and
before Mssrs.
LaGuardia or Moses came to power - 10 years before to be exact.
And as
can be read, many motor coach companies were lining up behind the idea. |
image courtesy of Shorpy Photo Archives |
Also worth noting is the dual fare system: 5 and
10 cents. While
Mayor Hylan immediately rejected the idea of 10 cent fares upon this
proposal; by October 11th, he no longer stood in opposition for 10 cent
bus fares in the Bronx. (You may click on the
image below for a larger and easier to read version.)
By this time, the existing private bus operators that held
franchises via the New York City Board of Estimate to operate surface
transportation, paid 2% percent of
their gross revenues to the City for the privilege of operating these
routes, and had to purchase all
their own equipment, pay for upkeep of
same, maintenance and property taxes for their facilities. There
were many private companies and the 2% was lucrative to the City
budget, and without the City having to get their hands "dirty"
operating a massive fleet of buses.
It was in no time at all that Manhattan and the
Bronx would have several independent bus
operators, such as:
- New
York City Omnibus
- East
Side Omnibus
- Comprehensive
Omnibus
- Eighth
Avenue Coach
- Fifth
Avenue Coach
- Third
Avenue Lines
- Madison
Avenue Coach
- Avenue
B & East Broadway
Some
of these operators had reciprocity transfer agreements
with the NYCTA and others did not. The
Borough of Queens was not too far behind Manhattan, and frankly may
have surpassed Manhattan; in regards to the number of private bus
companies in operation, but we will get to Queens in a bit.
Despite the IRT and BMT subways being unified with
the City of New York subway
operations after 1940; and the unilateral rapid transit fare set at a
nickel; private bus operators still charged ten cents. Upon the 1948 rise to
ten cent fares for subways and elevateds, the
surface bus operators in
Manhattan requested a 15 cent fare. This was immediately denied, and it
took numerous lawsuits and appeals for a fare rise to happen, and
eventually the private bus lines were allowed to charge a higher fare
at 11 cents, with Fifth Avenue Coach at 12 cents, and seemed to always
getting a premium fare over other operators.
By this point in time, the private bus operators paid 3%
percent
of
their gross revenues to the City for the privilege of operating these
routes, and as before; had to purchase their own rolling stock, be
wholly responsible maintenance as well as support structures and
properties such as garages, storage yards, etc..
On August 21, 1948, the last electric streetcar
lines in the Bronx and
Manhattan had been converted to internal combustion powered buses. On September
24, 1948, the City took over the
first of the Manhattan surface operators: East Side Omnibus and
Comprehensive Omnibus. Then
a year or two later, it was back
to square one in regards to a fare raise. The private companies would
announce their need to raise the fares to 15 cents. By March 1951,
Fifth Avenue made it third request for a 15 cent fare.
The Board of
Estimate would deny it, and they would counter with filing a lawsuit.
And the result? They would settle at 13 cents. And at
the same time they also wanted to charge a few more
cents for transfers, or abolish transfers entirely. Fifth Avenue Coach
was the most litigious.
Cases
dragged out for years in the courts
By 1954; Fifth Avenue Coach (now operating routes in
Manhattan
and Queens); and Surface Transportation (operating routes in Manhattan
and the Bronx), the fares were 15 cents. In 1958, they were granted
permission to raise the charge to 3 cents for transfers. The
alternative put forth by Fifth Avenue was to abolish transfers
completely.
By 1960, the City of New York itself was still only operating
but a few routes in
Manhattan - almost all of them downtown; with the big players still
being
Fifth Avenue Coach and Surface Transit Corp (a subsidiary of Fifth
Avenue Coach now) of which operated almost all of the Manhattan and
Bronx
Routes. A small company, Avenue B & East Broadway
Transportation operated on the
East Side.
After Fifth Avenue and Surface Transit went on strike on
January
1, 1962, and following the strike; transfers were eliminated as a
financial relief . They went out on strike again in March after a
layoff of personnel. Mayor Wagner had enough. The City of New York
condemned their assets, nullified the franchise, and seized the buses
on March 22. Within 48 hours, 80% of the routes were back to normal.
The last two idle routes resumed service on June 30.
The City also created a
new operating agency as a subsidiary of the Transit
Authority: the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority
or MaBSTOA. MaBSTOA would go on to operate the bus routes north of
Midtown. By 1966, MaBSTOA was operating:
- 28
routes in Manhattan, 23 of those being north-south routes;
- 43
routes in the Bronx, and,
- 3
routes in Queens: Jackson Heights to Washington Square, 125th Street to
Astoria and the Elmhurst Crosstown
Surprisingly, as of July 5, 1966 when the fare on the subways
rose to 20 cents, MaBSTOA remained at 15 cents. It would be twenty days
later, that the fare was raised on MaBSTOA. Now
the City of New York could claim fare parity between its surface fares
and its rapid transit fares!
The Avenue B & East Broadway Transit
was eventually absorbed into MaBSTOA in 1980. But a year later, the MTA
decided to
merge MaBSTOA and NYCTS Surface Division into a single entity: MTA New
York City Bus.
.
Brooklyn:
Brooklyn had the least amount of private bus line operators. Whomever they were, had
mostly been consolidated
by the BMT throughout the 1920's and 1930's. The bus subsidiary of
the BMT was the Brooklyn Bus Corp.
Research reflects only one private bus operator was known
after
the First and Second Unifications: this being Pioneer Bus. Pioneer Bus
would be replaced by Command Bus in 1979
the
Bronx
Excepting those operations of MaBSTOA, there were two listed
private bus lines operating in the Bronx in May of 2004:
Liberty Lines; operating
in western and central Bronx with seven Express Bus routes,
and
New
York Bus
Service in eastern Bronx operating six Express
Bus routes.
Neither of these operators had any local routes.
.
Richmond /
Staten Island:
Had but a few bus franchises as well. In 1925, the Tompkins
Bus Co. was
formed, and was awarded a franchise to operate gasoline buses on Staten
Island. Buses replaced the Department of Plant and Structures streetcar
and trolleybus routes, and new bus routes were formed serving
previously unserved areas.
In 1927, the Richmond
Light & Railroad Co. was renamed to Richmond Railways. In 1933,
the
subsidiary; Staten Island Coach Co. was formed and to began operating
buses, which gradually replaced the Richmond Railways streetcar routes.
The two separate bus systems continued to operate until 1937, when the
Staten Island Coach Co. began operating the Tompkins Bus Co. routes.
The Staten Island Coach Co. went out of
business in 1946, and the Isle Transportation Co., a company organized
by several former Staten Island Coach Co. employees, briefly began
operating the
buses on Staten Island. However, the Isle Transportation Co. did not
last long, itself going bankrupt in 1947, and the city took over the
buses on February 23 of that year.
This was the first city-operated bus
service (other than the Williamsburg Bridge line, which retained city
operation under the Board of Transportation) after the end of the
Department of Plant and Structures.
.
.
Queens:
This
leads us to private bus operations in Queens. [sigh]
I have been dreading getting to this chapter
knowing how
convoluted it was, and how much research it would take to get
everything
just so.
Queens is a rather large borough, (the largest of the five at
109
square miles) and
for some strange reason; it still retains to this day a segmented sense
of
geographical
areas: Jamaica, Flushing, Long Island City, Astoria, etcetera. You
didn't "go" to Queens. You might
"went" to Brooklyn (the only exception to this, was "going to Coney
Island"), or
you "went" to Staten Island, or you "went" to the Bronx. But if you
were going somewhere in Queens, you specified the area: "I'm
going
to Long Island City", "I need to go to Corona", "I have to take the
Ferry in Astoria", or I need to catch the train in Jamaica".
So, due to its size, and prior to 1930; there were
many bus routes were operated by various
independent operators. There were about two
dozen private bus operators in the Borough of Queens at this time:
Affiliated Bus Transit
Courier Bus
Flushing Heights Bus
Green Bus Lines
Jamaica Buses
Kings Coach
Liberty Bus Lines
Long Island Coach
|
Ludwig Bilow
Midland
Coach
Municipal Motorbus
National City Bus Lines
New York Bus
North Shore
Bus
Queens Auto Traction
Queens -
Nassau Transit |
Rauchwerger
Richmond Hill Bus
Ruoff Brothers
S & C Bus
Steinway Omnibus
Schenck Transportation
Triboro Coach
Z & M Coach
|
But, and very frankly; service in the beginning was haphazard
and deemed
inefficient.
So inefficient is seems, that a few early bus
routes were temporarily operated
under supervision by the New York City Department of Plant &
Structures (DP&S) as the "Emergency Bus System" which supplied
20
seat buses. These routes were assigned numbers in the
order in which they were introduced, in all five boroughs.
In 1931, to avoid unnecessary duplication of routes between
two
different carriers, and as not to incur the strong arming of
passengers into one carriers' bus over another (much like what had
happened in the mid 1800's with the first stage companies); the Board
of Estimate proposed dividing Queens into four zones, for bus
operating franchise
purposes.
The four zone setup for bus franchises was as follows:
| Zone A - |
western Queens;
Woodside,
Long Island City, Astoria, Steinway,
Jackson Heights |
| Zone B - |
northern Queens; Flushing, Bayside,
College Point, Whitestone, Douglaston |
| Zone C - |
southern Queens; Ozone
Park, Howard Beach, and the Rockaways |
| Zone D - |
eastern Queens; Jamaica,
Hollis, Queens Village |
|
Emergency Bus System -
City
of New York - Department of Plants & Structures - 1928
image courtesy of Motor Bus Society
|
With this new zone
setup, the company submitting the best bid (in regards to both fare
prices and perqs -
beginning with a maximum 5 cent fare and 2 cent transfer privileges),
would be awarded the
franchise in each zone. Any remaining smaller operators were to be
acquired
by the larger company, but the smaller company may continue to operate
under their own identity as a subsidiary.
Obviously, now matter how simple and straightforward a proposal may
seem; there was very spirited contention and the usual involvement and
grandstanding by
various politicians. It would take until 1936 to finalize the Queens
Franchise Zones.
In 1936 the winning bidders for the zones were as
follows:
| Zone A - Triboro Bus |
Zone B - North
Shore Bus |
Zone C - Green Bus Lines |
Zone D - Bee
Line, Inc. |
However, the City of New York with Mayor LaGuardia
now holding
office, vehemently contested the winning bidder of Zone D, that being
Bee
Line; with accusations of being an illegal operator. So lawsuits,
counter-lawsuits and appeals followed over the next year or
so.
Ultimately, Bee Line was found to be a legal operator; but still chose
to leave Queens operations. So, North Shore Bus
replaced Bee Line for Zone D operations. It should be noted that
this Bee Line, Inc entity that operated in
Queens (and Nassau County) is not the same Bee Line Bus System
operating presently in Westchester County.
With
some amendments and revisions over the next decade, this
franchise arrangement worked rather decently, not perfectly; but it
worked. By
1945, Triboro
Bus
was granted Zone A - Long Island City; North Shore Bus held the
franchise for Zone B - Flushing &
Jamaica; and Green Bus for Zone C - the Rockaways
as well as Zone
D - Jamaica. And some overlapping was now allowed.
By 1947, just like we saw seven years prior with the subways;
the
bus operators could no longer afford to operate on the mandated nickel
fare. So, just like with the subways, the New York City Board of
Transportation
took over the operations of Isle Transportation in Staten Island on
February 23, and the North Shore Bus in Queens on
March 30. Those of the private bus companies that could
survive,
did. Those that could not, fell; either by selling out to larger
operators or the City.
Also throughout this period, the City of New York - Board of
Transportation was
purchasing new buses to replace the mostly prewar vehicles, which were
now
so dilapidated as to be a safety hazard. They were also constructing
new
repair facilities and storage
depots. A lot of companies were still using old trolley barns for bus
garages dating back to before the turn of the century. By the end of
October 1956, streetcar operations in Brooklyn
were shutdown, replaced by bus and simplifying that boroughs surface
operations.
For the most part and the next half century,
this is where things lay. You had NYCTA
surface operations and you had private bus operators
with franchise
routes in Queens.
The following information comes from a Ridership Survey and
Route
Analysis conducted by the New York City Department of Transportation in
May 2004.
There is quite a bit of interesting information contained within it. It
outlines
the operators, their routes, with maps(!), equipment rosters and the
general fare information listed below. In all frankness, it would much
simpler for you the reader to reference directly to this document, than
it would be for me to transcribe all the information contained:
3.10 Fare Structure and
Transfer Policy
Fare and transfer policy for franchised services has been
established by New York City
Department of Transportation. In most instances, the policy integrates
very well with
that of MTA-NYCT. Franchised bus carriers do accept MetroCard as fare
media to board
buses, and transfers are allowed between the private franchised buses
and MTA-NYCT
buses and subways. The new fareboxes in use on the private carriers are
compatible with
MetroCard, and are the same as those in use by MTA-NYCT, therefore,
cash fares need to
be paid with coins. Liberty Lines and New York Bus have Bill
Accepting Units attached
to their fareboxes, so cash fares can be paid with dollar bills for
these companies.
The fare policy of New York City private
franchised buses identifies three different
service types in operation, with a fare policy set for each type. These
three service types
New York City Department of Transportation Bus Ridership Survey and
Route Analysis
25
are:
- Local service; refers
to all local bus routes, and includes local services operated by Command
Bus, Green Bus
Lines, Jamaica Buses, Queens Surface Corporation, and Triboro Coach.
- 1-zone express
service, are intra-borough
express buses such as the B103 of Command Bus, and Liberty
Lines
Express buses that provide intra-Manhattan service.
and
- 2-zone express
service, are the express
buses operated by all of the private franchised companies connecting
the outer boroughs
to Manhattan.
Table 3-9 provides an overview of fares charged for
franchised transit
services.
The base fare for local service is $1.50. During off-peak hours, cash
paying passengers
are only charged $1.00 while passengers who use MetroCard are still
charged $1.50.
Unlimited ride Metrocards are accepted for travel on all local
services. NYCT tokens are
also valid form of payment, with a value of $1.50. Transfers to other
local routes are
free, both among and between NYCT routes and NYCDOT routes. If paying
with a
MetroCard, transfers to subways and express routes (with step-up fare)
are also free. All
transfers are valid for 2 hours after paying the initial fare. With
valid identification,
senior citizens and disabled passengers pay half fare. When
accompanying a disabled
passenger, an attendant may ride for free. Free transportation is also
available for up to
three children under five years of age. Other people who may ride free
on private
franchised buses include New York City Police, New York City Fire
Marshals, personnel
authorized by the carrier and/or New York City Department of
Transportation, and letter
carriers on certain routes.
The base fare for 1-zone express services is also
$1.50, and the fare policy is similar to
local services. The main difference is that there is no off-peak
discount, at all times the
fare is $1.50. Half fare for senior or disabled passengers does not
apply during peak
periods. A one-day borough specific pass is available to riders for
$3.00 for unlimited
rides on 1-zone express buses in that borough. Metro-card (both
pay-per-ride and
unlimited) as well as NYCT tokens are accepted as payment on all 1-zone
express buses.
All transfers are accepted on 1-zone express buses, except those issued
onboard a route
with the same designation. In certain instances an additional “step-up”
charge may be
charged. Transfers are good for two hours after issuance. Free
transportation is available
for person authorized by the carrier and/or New York City Department of
Transportation
as well as a personal care attendant for a paying disabled passenger.
The base fare charged on 2-zone express services
is $3.00.
Fares can be paid in cash,
with pay-per-ride Metro-Card, as well as express bus unlimited
Metro-Cards. NYCT
tokens are accepted and count $1.50 towards the fare an all 2-zone
express services.
Senior citizens and disabled passengers are entitled to ride at half
fare ($1.50) during offpeak hours only. Passengers can transfer to any
other bus route in New York City within
two hours with a MetroCard, except one that is the same route of the
original bus. Local
and 1-zone transfers are valid for the equivalent of $1.50 onboard a
2-zone express bus.
Transfers from NYCT express bus routes are accepted without any
additional charge.
Student Metro-cards are accepted as $1.50 of the fare aboard a 2-zone
express bus.
Personal care attendants, as well as persons designated by either New
York City
Department of Transportation or the individual carrier, may travel free
on 2-zone express
buses.
Table 3-9: Fare Structure
| Fare Category |
Local Service |
1-zone
Express |
2-zone
Express |
| Base Fare |
$1.50 |
$1.50 |
$3.00 |
| Off-Peak (Cash Only) |
$1.00 |
$1.50 |
$3.00
|
| Senior Citizen/Disabled |
$0.75 |
$1.50 |
$3.00
|
| Senior Citizen/Disabled
(Off-Peak) |
$0.50 |
$0.75 |
$1.50 |
| Children Accompanied by
Adult |
Free |
Free |
Free |
At the time this survey was completed, NYCTA fares
were $2.00.
|
Due to rising costs of maintenance, labor, fuel, liability
insurance, health insurance and all the other expenditures over these
decades; the private operators slowly whittled down to but a
few remaining operators. And between the franchise costs and other
factors inherent to operating a transportation company, it was becoming
a tenuous situation.
And just like that...
So, in 2005, the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority
created the MTA Bus Division, to operate in conjunction with MTA New
York City Bus Division. Whereas MTA
New York City Bus was assigned to operate already existing NYCTA bus
routes under the NYCTA; MTA Bus was to acquire all remaining
private bus lines still
operating throughout the five boroughs on New York City.
At this point
in time, there were seven PBL's remaining: one in the Bronx, one in
Brooklyn, six in Queens.
They would be taken over by the MTA on a staggered timeline, in the
following chronological order:
| January 3, 2005 |
Liberty
Lines Express |
Queens |
| February 27, 2005 |
Queens
Surface Corporation |
Queens |
| July 1, 2005 |
New
York Bus Service |
Bronx |
| December 5, 2005 |
Command
Bus Company |
Brooklyn |
| January 9, 2006 |
Green
Bus Lines |
Queens |
| January 30, 2006 |
Jamaica
Buses |
Queens |
| February 20, 2006 |
Triboro
Coach Corporation |
Queens |
On retrospect, this event could very well be considered the
third "unification"
of New York City transit operations, and the one that goes most
unnoticed. Some of these companies were direct descendants of, and only
one generational link from streetcar operations in Queens, and not
having passed through either the First or Second Unifications.
Obviously, most of attention garnered by transit
buffs is paid to the subway and
elevated operations. Bus fans are a very niche subgroup within transit
aficiandoes, but they deserve some page space as well!
In 2008, the MTA, now having acquired the private operators;
folded everything into "MTA Regional Bus Operations Division", but this
is a divisional department name, with MTA Bus and MTA New York City Bus
being the "brand names".
But, as I stated earlier, surface
operations did not receive nearly the amount of attention it has been
due, with most published books and websites focusing on the history of
rail related transit
operations. Equally as so, the transfers and zone check issues by these
bus operators are an integral part of NYC transit ephemera collecting,
and they deservedly have a place within the scope of this website.
As such, transfers
for independent bus operators are more readily seen for Queens lines.
Staten Island being small, had the least.
A
short concise history for each of the private operators is located
above the known issues for those operators on the catalog page:
Significant
Dates of New York City Transit Fares - 1827 to the present
.
.
The
following table is a compilation of all known fares, as well
as
dates relating to the institution of or cessation of fare related
services, for all services
(when known) for both private and City operations. It is divided into
two sections; the left for rapid transit (subways and elevateds) and
the right for surface lines (trolleys, streetcars and buses).
Also take note, the
private bus operator fares were raised after the NYCTA raised theirs,
to allow for filing with the Board of Estimate, and subsequent amending
of the associated contracts. Most of the information below has been
compiled from New York Times archives.
| date |
fare |
Rapid
Transit (subways & elevateds) |
|
date |
fare |
Surface
Lines (trolleys, streetcars, and buses) |
| | | | 1827 | 12½¢ | per person - Brower Stage (Broadway between Bowling Green & Prince Street) |
| 1832 | 18¾¢
20¢ | New York & Harlem River RR - to Yorkville
to Harlem | | | | |
| October 23, 1852 | 5¢ | Eighth Avenue Railroad, entire railroad | | | | |
| March 22, 1855 | 10¢
12½¢ | New York & Harlem River RR - to Yorkville
to Harlem (upon competition from Third Avenue Stage) | | March 22, 1855 | 6¢
3-4¢ | stages uniform fare: main avenues
cross streets |
| 1872 |
6¢ |
Authorized maximum fare
for any distance traveled below 42nd Street on the New York and Harlem
RR (street railway) |
|
|
|
|
| 1879 |
10¢
7¢
5¢ |
Manhattan
Elevated: trips less than 5 miles, not to exceed through passage from
Battery and Harlem River, except on Commission Trains (operating 5:20 -
7:20 am &
5:00 - 7:00 pm) at 5¢ and 7¢ |
|
|
|
|
| 1904 |
5¢ |
Interborough Rapid
Transit, Manhattan Elevated, Third Avenue Elevated |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
May
26, 1900 |
10¢
|
double
fare collected on train / car south of Kings Highway on Culver
Line and Brighton Lines;
upon exit at Coney Island on Sea Beach Line and West End Lines. |
|
|
|
|
May 1, 1920 |
|
double fare
to Coney Island abolished |
| September 12, 1928 |
7¢ |
IRT files for 7 cent
fare, tokens minted; fare hike denied |
|
date? |
5¢
3¢
2 for 5¢
|
Queensboro Bridge Railway: Manhattan to Queens (cash),
Queensboro Bridge Railway: Manhattan to Welfare Island (cash),
Queensboro Bridge Railway: tokens (2½¢ - also good for Welfare Island to Queens)
|
|
|
|
|
1939 / 1940 |
10¢
5¢ |
BMT Streetcar routes
from Brooklyn to Worlds Fair
from Queens |
|
|
|
|
March
14, 1947 |
|
Franchises
let and approved for Triboro, North Shore and Green Bus Operators in
Queens |
| July
1, 1948 |
10¢
2¢
|
BOT
- NYCTS first unification
combination transfers from subway to bus
|
|
July
1, 1948 |
7¢
5¢
6¢
|
BOT
buses & trolleys
additional for combination tickets from bus to
subway introduced
additional for combination tickets from private surface operators to
NYC subway introduced |
|
|
|
|
September 22, 1948 |
6¢
11¢ |
private buses except:
Fifth Avenue Coach |
|
|
|
|
December 12, 1948 |
7¢
5¢
5 for 20¢
1¢ |
Green Bus, New York City
Omnibus, Eighth Avenue Coach, Madison Avenue Coach
Queensboro Bridge Railway Manhattan to Welfare Island (cash),
Queensboro Bridge Railway tokens (6¼¢ - also good for Welfare Island to Queens)
Queensboro Bridge Railway transfers to other lines |
|
|
|
|
June 25, 1949 |
12¢ |
Fifth
Avenue Coach |
|
|
|
|
July
1, 1950 |
10¢
8¢ |
BOT
buses & trolleys (combination transfers from bus to subway
still additional 5¢)
private
bus operators: New York City Omnibus, Madison Avenue Coach, Eighth
Avenue Coach, Green Buses, Triboro Coach, Jamaica Buses, Steinway
Omnibus, Queens-Nassau Transit, Avenue B & East Broadway Transit |
|
|
|
|
January 1, 1951 |
10¢
2¢
5¢
5¢
|
private
bus operators: Queens-Nassau
Transit, Steinway Omnibus, Green Bus Lines, Triboro Coach, Jamaica
Buses, Avenue B & East Broadway, New York City Omnibus, Madison
Coach, Eighth Avenue Coach;
transfer between above companies
combination tickets between above companies and BOT surface lines
introduced
Queensboro Bridge Railway transfers |
|
|
|
|
July 1, 1952 |
6¢
free
free
free
5¢
|
combination tickets eliminated between BOT
& private surface buses & BOT rapid except:
transfers from Bklyn bound elevated to bus @ Brooklyn Bridge issued at
Bridge-Jay St Sta,
transfers between surface lines terminating at Brooklyn Bridge at IND
High Street Sta;
transfers to Broadway Elevated at Marcy Avenue.
extra fare for bus
routes crossing Bronx-Whitestone Bridge |
| July
25, 1953 |
15¢ |
NYCTA
second unification - tokens for rapid transit only "Small Solid Token" released
|
|
July
25, 1953 |
15¢
|
surface
line payment remains coin only
(NYCTA fare parity between rapid transit and surface line from this
point down)
|
| September
24, 1953 |
15¢ |
"Small
Y Cutout Token" replaces "Small Solid token" |
|
|
|
| | | | October 31, 1953 | 8¢
5¢ | Queensboro Bridge Railway (cash)
transfers to other lines |
|
|
|
|
January
1, 1954 |
10¢
10¢
15¢
free
13¢
13¢ |
Queensboro
Bridge Railway (cash), 5¢ to
Welfare Island;
4 tokens @ 25¢
Third
Avenue Lines
Fifth Avenue Coach, Surface Transportation Bus Avenue B & East
Broadway Transit,
transfers from above companies to their own lines
Jamaica Bus, Triboro Coach, Queens-Nassau Transit, Steinway Omnibus,
Green Bus Lines local, 25¢
two zone, 35¢
three zone |
| June
28, 1956 |
|
double
fare (south of Howard Beach Station) for new Rockaway Service |
|
|
|
|
| | | | April 7, 1957 | 15¢
$1.50 for 24
free | Queensboro Bridge Bus: Manhattan to Queens:
(trolley line discontinued, replaced by bus service)
tokens for Bird-Coler Employees (6¼¢ per token.)
tokens no longer accepted at Manhattan Terminal - Queens to Welfare Island only
transfers |
| September
15, 1959 |
50¢ |
Aqueduct
Special |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
December
1, 1958 |
3¢ |
transfers
from Fifth
Avenue Coach, Surface Transportation Bus |
|
|
|
|
June 15,
1961 |
5¢ |
transfers
on from Fifth Avenue Coach & Surface Transit |
|
|
|
|
January
6, 1962 |
|
transfers
abolished from Fifth Avenue Coach & Surface Transit |
|
|
|
|
March
1962 |
15¢ |
NYCTA
absorbs Fifth Avenue Coach and Surface Transit Bus,
creates Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit operating Authority
"MaBSTOA". |
|
|
|
|
May 18, 1963 |
|
"Small
Y Cutout Token" usage on buses instituted |
| July
5, 1966 |
20¢
75¢ |
Aqueduct
Special - "Extra Large Y Cutout" (Special Fare)
Token released |
|
|
20¢
10¢
|
bus - bus transfers |
|
|
|
|
July 25,
1966 |
20¢ |
MaBSTOA
Bus and Private Bus Lines |
| July
1, 1969 |
|
Half Fare
for Senior Citizens instituted |
|
July
1, 1969 |
|
Half
Fare for Senior Citizens instituted |
|
|
|
|
August 31, 1969 |
|
Exact Change Only on
buses instituted |
| January
4, 1970 |
30¢ |
"Large
Y Cutout" token released |
|
January
4, 1970 |
30¢ |
|
|
|
|
|
January
25, 1970 |
25¢
" "
25¢
35¢
45¢
$1.00
$8.50 |
Avenue
B & East Broadway Transit, Triboro Coach, Queens Transit,
Steinway Omnibus, Pioneer Bus, NY Bus Tours
Zone 1 - Green &
Jamaica Bus Lines
Zone 2 - "
" "
" " "
" "
Zone
3 - "
" "
" " "
" "
Private Express Buses
10 trip commutation ticket |
|
|
|
|
April
12, 1971 |
|
NYCTA
Express Buses $1.00 |
|
|
|
|
1971 |
30¢
|
Avenue
B & East Broadway Transit, Triboro Coach, Queens Transit,
Steinway Omnibus, Green Bus Lines, Jamaica Bus, Pioneer Bus
Private Bronx Express Buses to $1.25, Private Queens Express Buses to
$1.50 |
| July
1, 1971 |
|
Staten
Island Rapid Transit becomes part of MTA / NYCTA |
|
|
|
|
| January
1, 1972 |
35¢ |
|
|
January
1, 1972 |
35¢ |
NYCTA
Express Buses $1.25? |
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1972 |
30¢
40¢
50¢ |
Zone 1 - Green &
Jamaica Bus Lines
Zone 2 - "
" "
" " "
" "
Zone
3 - "
" "
" " "
" " |
|
|
|
|
December 1, 1972 |
35¢
"
"
35¢
45¢
55¢
$8.50 |
NY Bus Tours, Avenue B
& East Broadway Transit, Steinway Omnibus, Queens Transit,
Triboro Coach, Pioneer Buss
Zone 1 - Green &
Jamaica Bus Lines
Zone 2 - "
" "
" " "
" "
Zone
3 - "
" "
" " "
" "
10
trip Commutation Ticket abolished |
|
|
|
|
October 8, 1973 |
75¢ |
NYCTA
unlimited rides Midtown Shoppers Bus |
| December
16, 1973 |
|
Half
Fare Sundays instituted |
|
|
|
|
| September
2, 1975 |
50¢ |
Half
Fare for Handicapped / Disability recipients added |
|
September
2, 1975 |
50¢ |
NYCTA
Express Buses $1.50
Add-A-Ride tickets instituted
double fare on Rockaway Line abolished |
| November
15, 1975 |
|
Half
Fares extended to Saturday |
|
|
|
|
| January
1, 1976 |
|
|
|
|
50¢ |
Riverdale
Transit, Pelham Parkway Bus Service, NY Bus Tours, Triboro Coach,
Queens Transit, Steinway Omnibus, Jamaica Bus, Green Bus, Pioneer,
Domenico
Private Express Buses to $1.50 |
| September 23, 1978 |
$3.50 |
JFK Express service
inaugurated - (plus regular subway fare) |
|
|
|
|
| April 1979 |
|
"Silver
Special Fare Token" released for Aqueduct Special |
|
|
|
|
| November
1, 1979 |
|
"Diamond
Jubilee Token" released |
|
|
|
|
| May
18, 1980 |
|
Half Fare
weekends abolished |
|
|
|
|
| June
28, 1980 |
60¢
|
"Large
Solid Y Token" released |
|
June
28, 1980 |
60¢ |
NYCTA
Express Buses $2.00 |
| July
3, 1981 |
75¢
$5.00 |
JFK Express fare |
|
July 3, 1981 |
75¢ |
25¢ transfers eliminated
(when did they start?) |
|
|
|
|
July
25, 1981 |
75¢ |
Triboro
Coach, Queens Transit, Steinway Bus, Jamaica Bus, Green Bus,
Command Bus |
|
|
|
|
September
?, 1981 |
|
NYCTA
Express Buses $2.50 |
| January
2, 1984 |
90¢ |
|
|
January
2, 1984 |
90¢ |
Express
Bus $3.00
Add-A-Ride tickets abolished |
| January
1, 1986 |
$1.00
$6.50
$2.50 |
JFK Express
$6.00 to $6.50,
JFK Employees $2.25 to $2.50 |
|
January 1,
1986 |
$1.00 |
East Side
Express Bus to $4.00, all other Express buses remained at $3.00 |
| April 21, 1986 |
|
"Bulls-eye
Token" (with SJD) released |
|
|
|
|
| December
1988 |
|
"Archer
Avenue Bulls-eye" Token released |
|
|
|
|
| January
1, 1990 |
$1.15 |
|
|
January
1, 1990 |
$1.15 |
all
NYCTA Express Buses $4.00 |
| April
15, 1990 |
|
JFK Express
service abolished |
|
|
|
|
| June 4, 1990 |
|
experimental 4 pack of
tokens released |
|
|
|
|
| January
1, 1992 |
$1.25 |
"Bulls-eye
Token" (without SJD) released(?) |
|
|
$1.25 |
|
| June
1, 1993 |
|
MetroCard
system (Blue) rolled out in subways only |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
September
1995 |
|
first
MetroCard (Blue) fareboxes installed on SI Buses, |
|
|
|
|
December
1995 |
|
MetroCard
fareboxes installed in all NYCTA buses |
| November
12, 1995 |
$1.50 |
"Five
Borough" token released |
|
|
$1.50 |
|
| July
4, 1997 |
free
transfers |
MetroCard
Gold introduced allowing free transfers between subway & buses,
including private buses |
|
March
1, 1998 |
free
transfers |
MetroCard
Gold introduced allowing free transfers between subway & buses,
including private buses
NYCTA
Express Buses reduced to $3.00 |
| April
13, 2003 |
|
sales of
tokens ceased |
|
April 13,
2003 |
|
sales of
tokens ceased |
| May
4, 2003 |
$2.00 |
tokens
no longer accepted for subway |
|
|
$2.00 |
tokens
accepted on buses only with additional 50¢
NYCTA
Express Buses back up to $4.00 |
|
|
|
|
December
31, 2003 ? |
|
token
acceptance on buses ceased |
|
|
|
|
May 2004 |
$1.00
$1.50
$3.00 |
Queen Private Bus
Operators: Off Peak Local routes
Local routes - Base Fare
Two Zone Express routes
|
|
|
|
|
February
27, 2005 |
|
NYCTA
Express Buses to $5.00 |
|
|
|
|
February 20, 2006 |
|
Last of the
Private Bus Lines absorbed into MTA Bus |
| June
28, 2009 |
$2.25 |
single ride
MetroCard: $2.50 |
|
June 28,
2009 |
$2.25 |
|
|
|
|
|
December
30, 2010 |
|
NYCTA
Express Buses to $5.50 |
| March
3, 2013 |
$2.50 |
single
ride MetroCard $2.75 |
|
March 3,
2013 |
$2.50 |
NYCTA
Express Buses to $6.00 |
| March
22, 2015 |
$2.75 |
current
fare |
|
March
22, 2015 |
$2.75 |
single
ride MetroCard $3.00
NYCTA
Express Buses to $6.50 |
| October
23, 2017 |
|
NYCTA
announced MetroCard system being abolished of contactless "OMNY" RFID
Card System. |
|
|
|
|
April
21, 2019 |
|
NYCTA
Express Buses to $6.75 |
| ca.
2024 |
|
MetroCard
system slated to be abolished |
With this "brief" synopsis of the fare history of New York
City, let us progress onward to the various types
of
fiscal issues used by the transportation companies.
Catalog Pricing
& the New York City Transit Ephemera Market
.
Pricing for items listed in this catalog
are based on prices paid for examples acquired for
our collections (adjusted for
inflation where necessary); as well as:
-
prices realized (not listing / asking
prices) on eBay via
completed / sold listings search,
- Worthpoint,
and
- personal
records compiled from prices
realized from conventional numismatic auction listings and over the
past few decades.
A
sale price is determined by three factors: Condition, demand and
rarity. If one of those three legs is missing from the milking stool,
things do not sit well.
Rarity takes into
account not only the number made, but the number of similar
items that have survived.
Demand exists when fifteen
people are in search of seven items; eight people will be disappointed. They
will then perhaps be eager to pay higher at the next
auction appearance, or drop out
of the collecting pool altogether and move on to something else.
Condition comes
into effect when numerous like items are available
thus discretion can be made to how well preserved it
is. On a
truly rare item, condition has a lot less consideration.
Many items in this catalog are known in less than
five specimens, especially the omnibus tokens and stage tickets.
However, when only two or three people are interested in them and there
are ten;
well then, there is no demand. If a particular item
is nice
and "sexy"
and twenty exist but forty people
want it, then the
demand
is disproportionate to the availability, and the price rises
until
the demand fades.
When an old
time collection or horde becomes available, many items come to the
market at once; which
have formerly been unavailable and thus create interest and buying
opportunities. But when plentiful, the price should go DOWN.
To bring this into focus:
- A
five-cent elevated ticket made in huge
quantities for one time use is generally uncommon as they were bought
and used within twenty feet. Unless the buyer bought a strip of five,
used four and one ended up in a scrapbook.
- A
similar ticket from a
small bus line had much smaller print runs and thus reduced
availability to a
collector, thus it is probably valued more.
- A
block ticket for an emergency stoppage on the subway is rarer than a
general station to station or subway to bus continuing ride transfer of
the same format.
- A
transfer from low traffic or seasonal shuttle bus
would be more difficult to acquire than one that ran all year round.
But
not
all items from a specific railroad may be rare. Rarity is based on
whether or
not the issues were for general or special fares, every day circulation
or a special occasion.
Other factors considered, are the longevity and scope of the
operation; for example:
- a
ticket from a one or two route transportation
company in the 1920's will be significantly rarer than that of tickets
from
a large subway operator in 1904.
In
regard to items listed on this website, the following terms are used
and their explanation:
.
common:
|
many
examples are known; by variety, date and quantity; pretty much
seen
full time for sale individually on eBay, Etsy, Mercari, and on
dealer / private sales lists.
|
| uncommon: |
examples
not frequently seen, but can appear for sale several times a year on eBay, Etsy, Mercari, et al.
however: tokens in this
category may be found on private sales lists of token
specialists & dealers.
|
| scarce
/ rare: |
very
infrequently seen, purchasing opportunities extremely limited to
perhaps once or twice a year; some competition to be expected.
|
| extremely rare: |
minimal
examples known, years before an example
appears for sale; much demand; intense competition to
be expected. |
.
.
With rarity now being explained, we
are witness to a disturbing trend in regards to the New York City
transit collectibles market in particular:
Overly
inflated and unrealistic pricing.
To
be absolutely clear, I am not
talking about truly rare and old items that are hardly or never seen. I
am referring to the most common of transit ephemera:
Continuing
Ride tickets, Streetcar Line and Bus Route
transfers, Sunday Half Fare Tickets
In
other words, common items.
Common items that were printed in many varieties and quantities in
the millions. These following items as well
as others and their varieties; were very widely
circulated and used daily:
These tickets and transfers, were bulk
printed for daily use. In booklets of 25 or 50 tickets depending on the
purpose. At the end of the day, unused tickets and transfers, went
into recycling bins by the bushel load.
Transit buffs and employees foreseeing a future collectability, saved
or recovered them. These items used to sell regularly for 25
to 50 cents a piece back
in the early 2000's on eBay. Entire books of transfers could be had for
a paltry few dollars.
Over the last decade, I am now seeing multiple sellers
offering many varieties
of these tickets and transfers; some are even listed in group lots for
prices way, way out of touch for their actual value.
We
now bear witness to single
transfers attempting to be sold at $10, $11 dollars or MORE. For a
single paper transfer! And when you see
consecutive serial numbers in multiple lots, you know
the seller is disassembling a booklet. And
whole books? Whole books of 25 or 50 transfers are now being listed for
$50,
$60, even $99...
Even accounting for inflation, what was 50¢ in 2000 should
currently be selling for 78¢ in 2021 - adjusted for cumulative rate of
inflation (56.3%). Individual tickets and
transfers that sold for 50¢ each, therefore a booklet of twenty-five
could be bought for $6.25.
Postage was 34¢ in 2000, and is now at the time of publishing
this website is 55¢. eBay insertion fees,
while they have risen, have not risen to account for this drastic
increase. Insertion fees are currently between 30¢ and 05¢
based
on whether its a beginner or an anchor listing, and whether it is an
auction style listing or fixed price. If one decides to sell through an
electronic store front on eBay, the yearly "rent" is between $7.95 year
and $299.00 per year, billed monthly.
And so, a 50¢ cent transfer adjusted
for inflation, should now be 78¢ and the
eBay insertion fee is 30¢. Postage is 55¢. Speaking
of which is another matter entirely - I do not need expedited
shipping /
priority mail and tracking on a $1.00 item in plentiful
supply. If it
gets lost? I buy another and not hold the seller responsible.
Oh and before someone thinks about the "supposed"
time and
expense in going to the post office - another nice try, but I know the
USPS picks up outgoing shipments from the seller as part of the
integrated labeling, postage and shipping package offered by eBay:
Schedule
a Package Pickup:
Prepare your
package, complete with postage, then request a pickup
online. Your carrier will pick it up at no charge.
Let us even assume the seller has purchased a basic e-store
and its cost is part of the overhead. That's another 67¢
per month. That still only comes to $2.30 for a simple individual
transfer. Even tacking on a 30% mark up for the 7 cent
envelope, the 2 cents of printer ink; still brings
the ultimate total to only $2.99.
.
Bottom line? Regardless of
the format being sold under, these common items should still be for sale
around $2.00 to $3.00 each. Not
$6.99. Not $9.99, Not $19.99 or $24.99, or higher.
If anything, these issues are more prolific now than they
were as more people found eBay and are selling their items. There are
more choices of dates and routes on the tickets and transfers than ever
before.
Some of these sellers do not even hide the fact they have
dozens if not hundreds of books; as I have seen in stated in their
description "I have totes full of these transfers in the
attic
for years".
Some images with auctions show a table or box full of transfer
books.
These booklets are unissued remainders.
Extras, that were not issued or used. Leftovers.
Please understand even further;
I am not
discussing transfers issued on historical or notable dates (transit
related or otherwise), such as the Last Day of Operation of the
Third Avenue or Myrtle Avenue Elevated, President Kennedy's
assassination, or other significant dates. I am referring to just plain
and simple uneventful and
unhistorical dates.
But
for something as mundane, plentiful and mass produced as NYCTA
continued
ride tickets and transfers? Remember
supply and demand? Well there is plenty of supply, and little demand.
Obviously, because there plenty of them for sale!
This overinflated pricing is utter madness. I as a collector,
am
by no means afraid to
spend my money on something rare and unique or in high demand to add to
my collection. But to pay $5.00 or more for 75 cent item? $50.00 for a
book of transfers worth $18.75? I may have been born at night,
but
not last night.
And if I have to spend 60 minutes haggling repeatedly with a
seller to get their items down from an inflated price, as opposed
to one with a reasonable price; who do you think I am going to
patronize?
In General
This overpricing issue is in no way
restricted to the NYC transit ephemera
market and is prevalent in quite a few of collectible areas. Railroad
lanterns is another problematic area: very common New York Central
Railroad lanterns are listed for hundreds of dollars. Book
value?
$40 - $45..
But one rare railroad lantern for a small 1800's short line
sells
for
a couple of hundred or a
thousand dollars, and everyone who is selling a railroad lantern thinks
their is worth that too.
Fortunately
for that collecting venue, there are published catalog and
references with price
guides, as well as a very reputable Facebook Group. Same go for other
collecting interests. In most cases, once
a seller is provided with a screenshot or scan of the particular
lantern in the catalog with associated price, their price usually gets
adjusted accordingly. And more than one buyer has expressed their
frustration after a purchase and upon sharing the item in the group,
and
then comes to be told they significantly overpaid for that
lantern.
As a
responsible seller or buyer, you really need to
check the completed and sold auction pricing
section.
.
*RARE*
*RARE* *RARE*!!!
(Not, not, not)
Another ongoing issue is the overuse of the word "RARE!".
"Rare" in
terms of collectability means something that is not seen often and of extremely
limited availability. Not
something that is offered for sale
on a regular basis and in multitudes.
Rare means several or many collectors all vying to purchase the same
item,
because there is only one or maybe two available irregularly. Not
a seller listing five or six, or ten or twenty of them with
the word "RARE" in your title, over and over again with each
lot.
Sometimes I think the only thing rare in these auctions and
buy-it-now
offerings; is the sellers common sense, their morality and the steak
they wish they
were eating. Calling something rare when it is not, is highly
misleading and adversely affects the pricing structure of the market as
a whole.
Most of us watch or have watched; the plethora of reality TV
shows that are broadcast featuring
pickers and pawnshops. The running joke is the low ball offers
made by prospective buyers, and in sharp contrast; the overzealous and
overestimated values of the owner. eBay is no different, only in this
case, we have done the math from empirical sales evidence and history;
and based the price guide on realistic values.
See, the object in a marketplace is to sell and make money -
not list your extras
for dubious, overinflated
prices in an attempt to "place a value your collection".
This speculation of the
New York transit ephemera collectibles must stop. It is a matter of
respect to the hobby as a whole, not to mention being an honorable way
to conduct business.
Now perhaps I am naïve; but in my economics
class in school (which I passed), if someone is in the business of
selling things, and something or a lot
of things goes unsold for long period of time, you lower
your prices. Not
raise them to make people think that little common piece of paper is
worth a lot more than it really is.
And
it certainly should not
be the collector's burden to pay more, because you as the seller
overestimated the items worth or collectability, and overpaid for them
in the first place.
.
Questionable
Business Practices
It
should be noted that for this chapter, these are the
observations and experiences of one author (PMG) and only
that author bears the responsibility of the following.
There is one person in particular on eBay in the field of New
York collectibles, including the transit area; that is the worst of the worst.
.
First
and foremost:
This person is now (as of 1/2022) selling under three different names, of which I
have personally and undeniably confirmed that the two are the same person; and the third of the sellers
is working in direct partnership for the first person, supposedly "on
consignment" - selling the same items as the first (serial / ticket
numbers match), but for a few dollars less. But they are working the
same stock of items owned by the first party.
This first person; not only has a grossly overestimated value
of the items being sold; but is clearly intending
to (and has) distort the market with these prices. So much so, other
regular sellers have raised there prices - on the same exact
items. And these too, go unsold. I know what so of you may be thinking
- if they don't sell, what is the harm?
The harm is, and remains; other people come on eBay to sell
their
items, and look at asking prices and price theirs accordingly.
Unfortunately, very few sellers (especially new sellers); take the time
to research
the completed and
sold auction listings
for actual prices realized (sold).
This is
where checking those options in eBay advanced search comes in very
handy; as does
a Worthpoint subscription. Then, there is always the option of seeking
out the advice
of other collectors, which can be done with ease with the prevalence of
collector forums, and now with Facebook groups.
Again, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough: I
am not talking about the truly rare items.
I as a
collector, understand and can live with that. If an item sells with
multiple bidders,
then there is demand and there in an under bidder to show there is
interest in that item at the closing price.
Almost all items listed
have a "best offer" option, but when you make a reasonable offer - it
is
almost always immediately rejected. A few days later, this seller on
occasion makes a "50% off" counter offer.
Wait a second. If someone is listing an item at $60 (that is
normally valued at say $10), rejects your offer of
$15; and then counteroffers it to you for $30? It is
still drastically overpriced! And still $20 over value! And you are
still being overcharged!
Silly me - and here this person is thinking they are giving
you a great deal!
Second:
This person
has multiples, even dozens of common New York area transit and other
venues
(amusement park, arcade, etc) ephemera and tickets of various kinds;
all listed for exorbitant prices, all listed at the same time - all
have titles with the word "RARE", and yet so obvious that by the
quantity offered and variety of offerings that they are not rare! All
one has
to do, is go through this persons eBay store.
In the past, I have seen the same item listed for sale under
both
user ID's, same color, same serial number; with the one being slighter
lower in price on the "consignee" listing than on the primary listing.
While I could attribute to one listing being a mistake, there were
several. It appears to no longer be the case, but it did occur.
This is a very dubious attempt to help "direct" some
customers to
the second sellers eBay listings, in their quest for a "better price".
.
Third:
This person obstinately mis-attributes a great deal of the
items
listed to something they are not. On more than one occasion correct
information was forwarded to this person in good faith by several
buyers, and yet the corrections or revisions refused.
From the standpoint of historical accuracy, this leads the
novice
collector or seller into thinking they have something they do not.
.
Fourth:
If
this was not enough of an insult to our intelligence, this gonif
cannot even post a picture of the items with a decent
accurate ruler - it is sloppily hand drawn on piece of printer paper. Seriously? For amount of the price
being overcharged, this person could certainly spring for a 99 cent
ruler on eBay!
If this was just a case of overpricing, I would have probably
just
keep my observations to myself and my mouth shut. But all
these issues is foretelling of something much more dire. This
person in so many ways has become a pox
in this area of collecting.
Unfortunately, some people feel they have no choice but to
purchase
from this person because this person holds most of the high
cards,
of which obviously are marked. Well, this casino is bringing in a new
deck - with this website, catalog and price guide.
Some people write price guides to bolster the worth of their
collection. This price guide is being writing to stabilize this
particular
field of the hobby of collecting, and doing so honestly,
even if it may appear I am on a
crusade or outspoken.
In
conclusion - for now
I
can only hope these sellers (and this one unscrupulous seller in
particular) finds this chapter, read this and reflect upon this. The
jig
is up.
And so, in regard to the prices listed herein on
this
website, these are based on actual availability and desirability and
not pulled out of one's derrière. If these prices should happen to
undercut
the sellers listing price and cause them consternation; as it should -
in
my ultimate hope and to stabilize the market - so be it.
What is a collector to do? Refuse to pay these prices is
what.
Send
the seller a reasonable offer, and if and when they come back
with
a
respectable counter offer, good. If not, do not be afraid to tell them
how unreasonable their estimation of value is. Feel free to cite this
guide. And on common stuff; it will come up for sale again. I used to be respectful
and shy about doing this. No more.
We,
as collectors who spend our hard earned money; and who make every
attempt to stretch the budget we allot for our collectibles purchases
must REFUSE to allow
these greedy
sellers
to line their pockets, trying to make a twenty dollar bill on a 50 cent
piece of paper. It is not even a case of buyer beware / caveat emptor. I can't help but think
these sellers are trying to pay their yearly
eBay sales and listing fees in one sale. This "reverse thinking"
has to cease. It certainly cannot be supported willingly by buyers.
An educated consumer is their worst customer.
Philip M.
Goldstein
Collectors
of NYC Transportation Exonumia & Ephemera - Facebook Group.
Several years ago, I (PMG)
created
a group on Facebook for the collectors of New York City Transit
Exonumia and Ephemera. After about a year, it had not received the kind
of attention I had envisioned, and so I archived it.
With the publication of this website however, I now foresee
increased interest the area: those that will be seeking knowledgeable
assistance for pricing of objects in the area, as well as offering
those collectors a specific area to have
discourse on the
subject; and provide an opportunity to buy, sell and trade as an
alternative to eBay (and their fees).
So
I thought it would be an opportune time to un-archive the
group.
You may access the group here:
Please note:
Group
Rules and Guidelines are as follows:
- no modern
generalized
politics;
(historical politics
regarding fare control and fare raises however are
inevitable and will be accepted in polite, mature, congenial discussion)
- no copyright
infringement;
- no spam or off
topic advertising;
- no unsolicited
criticism;
- no generalized
posts bashing or criticizing the MTA / NYCTA / MN / LIRR;
- no deliberately
false or inaccurate posts (so called April Fools posts),
and
- above
all else: NO
DRAMA.
- yes to wheeling and
dealing,
- yes asking questions,
and
- yes to bringing
friends.
.
.
This website is fondly
dedicated in the memories of
Joseph
D. Korman
30
year veteran (retired) of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
Bus Division
|
|
Benjamin
W. Schaeffer
23
year veteran Conductor of the New York City Transit Authority, with
several commendations for exemplary & heroic service.
RTO Conductor Vice Chair for the Transit Workers Union Local
100.
NY area transit & railroad
historian; aficionado, collector and good friend. |
passed away - 21
November 2018 |
|
Taken too
soon by CoVid-19 - 28 April 2020 |
|
Joseph Korman
This website is informally
dedicated to the efforts of the late Joseph D. Korman. In his
groundbreaking
website "The JoeKorNer", he had addressed the most basic of
NYC
transit
ephemera. Following his passing in 2018, his website
unfortunately went
untouched, and ultimately was removed from the web as of November
2021.
It can be said this website was in some way inspired of his
initial efforts.
Benjamin W. Schaffer
A good friend,
stalwart employee of the Transit Authority, an extremely knowledgeable
transit buff and collector. Unfortunately, one of the first victims of
CoVid 19 in April 2020.
When
a question arose that was NY Transit related, the first suggestion
inevitably was "Ask Ben".
Following
his all-to-early passing, I (PMG) was given the honor of housing his
vast collection, and of which has lent itself greatly to the creation
of this website.
Special Thanks
.
Whether it be a collector submitting a large assortment of
items or only
one for inclusion to display; whether it be fare related, or
photographs or documents; or being a respectable and repeat seller
of items; we are
greatly appreciative of the submissions of the following people to help
make
this website what it is;
|
William Downes
fairfare
(eBay)
Steve Hayden Civil War
Tokens
civilwartokens.com
Arthur Huneke
arrts-arrchives.com
John Isaksen
New York Times
Article Archives
Bob Schneider
bobstokens.com
Bob Singleton
Greater Astoria
Historical Society
astorialic.org
Ken Whorton
texkengold
(eBay)
Mark Wolodarsky
Al Zelazo
subwayal (eBay)
|
and much appreciation
goes to Steve Grande for the unlimited amount of
digital space for, and the hosting of; this website on Trainweb.com!
All
content, graphics, and text -
©
2022 - Philip
M. Goldstein
About your Authors
George
S. Cuhaj
George Cuhaj is a son of Astoria, NY. As a student at
Brooklyn
Technical High School he traveled the IND’s GG crosstown local in the
mornings and the BMT’s RR local in the afternoon homebound. His father
and uncle worked at the 207th Street Shops, and in an earlier
generation a Grandfather and seven shirt-tail relatives worked at
Sunnyside Yards of the PRR or the Morris Park Shop of the LIRR. College
years at what was then New York City Community College put him in
proximity of the NYCTA’s Jay Street offices during the planning years
for the Transit Museum and the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. This put
him in contact with Donald Harold, Hugh Dunn and Howie and Suzanne
Samelson (of the Broadway Limited Antique Co.)
Early employment was at the NYC offices of Rand McNally
& Co
(in their book division, not their ticket division), the American
Numismatic Society (for early computerization efforts) and Stack's Rare
Coins (for catalog production). During these years he continued his
scouting involvement as scoutmaster and was honored with the Silver
Beaver Award by the Queens Council and the Vigil Honor by Suanhacky
Lodge #49, Order of the Arrow.
A career move led
him to bucolic Central Wisconsin and a 22-year career with Krause
Publications Numismatic Division and editing the Standard Catalog of
World Coins and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. From 1981 to
2010 he participated in organizing the Coin Collecting Merit Badge
Booth at the National Scout Jamborees and in 2005 was the lead editor
for the Coin Collecting Merit Badge booklet.
In 2004 he was
called upon to share some of his collection items for the NY Subway
Centennial exhibits at both the Transit Museum and the New York Public
Library where he participated in several educational events.
This sharing of information and “stuff” brought
him to work with Philip on this website.
.
.
Philip M. Goldstein
Philip M. Goldstein was born and raised in the Gravesend
section of
Brooklyn, NY. From an early age, with encouragement from his parents;
he
has been collecting ephemera such as toll receipts and maps
from family
road trips. This in turn led to
collecting his
personal New York City Transit school passes from Junior High and
travels to Edward R. Murrow High School, as well as the then current
system maps, tokens and bus transfers. After
graduation from Lehigh
Technical School with a certificate in Industrial and
Mechanical Drafting his collecting advanced to U.S. small size currency
(post-1928 bank notes) and Military
Currency.
In 1998 after relocating to Margaretville, NY; and following
in
his father's passion; he refocused his collection to local Upstate New
York railroads: the Ulster & Delaware, Delaware &
Eastern and
Delaware & Northern Railroads; with a
strong emphasis on ephemera.
He also rekindled his interest in New York City Transit
ephemera
but also had a "distraction" in collecting Canadian paper currency
(from 1870 to the present). At this point
in 2017;
with his parents now having passed on, he sold the properties in New
York,
divested his collection of Upstate NY railroads; and relocated
to East Central Texas to join his wife's family. He now took
up collecting railroad memorabilia from his "new" local railroad - the
Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway, and its successor, the Burlington -
Rock Island Joint Texas Operation.
Coinciding with these collecting interests throughout the
years, and coupled
with knowledge learned from formal schooling in graphic arts, and his
self taught experience in webpage design, he has created and
maintains websites / digital encyclopedias on these various subjects;
such as Offline
Rail-Marine Freight Terminal Railroads of New York City, as
well as Military
Railroads of New York City; another website
pertaining to the Double
Ended Railroad Wreckers of New York Area. Yet another
website regarding The
Development of the Carfloat Transfer Bridge of New York Harbor;
has been well received and cited numerous times in the field of
professional
engineering.
His
collecting interests led him to author a website on Toll
Scrip and Token Issues of New York and New Jersey -
www.nynjtollscrip.info, and became acquainted with George S.
Cuhaj. This in turn
led them both to discover their mutual collecting interest of New York
City Transit ephemera, and their subsequent decision to create this
website.
In April of 2020, Benjamin W. Schaeffer - friend,
fellow researcher
of
New York area offline freight terminal railroads and collector of
Transit Memorabilia; passed due COVID-19.
This presented the opportunity to provide a good home for Ben's
extremely vast collection of New York City Transit materials.
In his spare time, Philip can usually be found photographing
BNSF
and Union Pacific Railroad operations near his home. He is an
avid
lover of animals and is owned by no less than ten felines, two dogs and
his wife Deborah.
Bibliography and References | Private Publishings |
| The New York and Brooklyn Bridge | Loeser, Frederick | 1883 |
| New Subways for New York, Dual System of Rapid Transit | McCall, Edward E. | 1913 |
| The Street Surface Railway Franchises of New York City | Carman, Harry | 1919 |
| Fares Please | Miller, John Anderson | 1941 |
| Under the Sidewalks of New York | Cudahy, Brian | 1979 |
| How We Got To Coney Island | Cudahy, Brian | 2002 |
| Uptown, Downtown | Fischler, Stan | 1976 |
| The Bus Is Young and Honest | Schrag, Zachary | 2000 |
| From a Nickel to a Token | Sparberg, Andrew | 2015 |
| . | | |
| Website and Internet Based Sources |
| The JoeKorNer (website - no longer published) | Korman, Joseph | |
| Shorpy Old Photos | (digitized photo archive) | |
| nycsubway.org | (internet site) | |
| bustalk | (forum) | |
| New York's Railroads, Subways & Trolleys - Past & Present | Facebook Group | |
| Only Classic NYCTA Subways Buses / LIRR / MetroNorth and PATH and Moments | Facebook Group | |
| New York City Time Machine | Facebook Group | |
| New York City Memories | Facebook Group | |
| Subway World | Facebook Group | |
| Perey Turnstiles | product history | |
| . | | |
| Internal Reports, Documents |
| The City of New York Charter with amendments | | various dates |
| Sixth Annual Report | Board of Railroad Commissioners | 1888 |
| v. Interborough Rapid Transit | New York Supreme Court, Court of Appeals | 1917-1933 |
| v. Brooklyn Rapid Transit | New York Supreme Court, Court of Appeals | 1900-1920 |
| First Annual Report of the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Co. | Brooklyn & Queens Transit | 1930 |
| Board of Transportation, City of New York - Public Notices and Informational Posters | various sources | 1940-1953 |
| New York City Transit Authority - Public Notices and Informational Posters | various sources | 1953 - 2003 |
| Minutes of Meetings | City of New York Board of Franchise & Apportionment | various dates |
| Annual Reports, Board Minutes and other documentation | City of New York Board of Transportation | various dates |
| select images and documents with descriptions where noted | New York Transit Museum | various dates |
| Effects of the 1966 New York City Transit Strike of Travel Behavior of Regular Transit Users | NYCTA | 1966 |
| JFK Express - 1 Year Service Evaluation, MTA | NYCTA | 1979 |
| New York City Department of Transportation Bus Ridership Survey and Analysis | NYCDOT | 2004 |
| ATS Transportation Practices; New York City Department of Education | NYCDOE | 2011 |
| New York City Transit Tariff | MTA | 2015 |
| Northeast Queens Bus Study; Parts 1 and 2 | MTA | 2015 |
| Reports and Proceedings | Public Service Commission of the State of New York | various dates |
| . | | |
| Technical and Industrial Publications and Periodicals |
| Elevated Railway Review; Vol. XIX; January 1 - May 15 | | 1908 |
| Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Vol. XLIII, No. 6 | | 1917 |
| Supplement to Electric Traction | | 1919 |
Red Book Informational Guides
|
| various dates |
| Rider's New York City Guide Book, Second Edition | | 1923 |
| Electric Railroaders Association article archives | | various dates |
| . | | |
| Newspaper Archives |
| New York Times article archives | | various dates |
| New York Daily News article archives | | various dates |
| New York Post article archives | | various dates |
| Leader Observer, Forest Park, NY | | 1978 |
.
 |
© 2021 - Brighton Beach Express |
| Philip M.
Goldstein / George S. Cuhaj |
For
reuse, additions or corrections,
please contact: brghtnbchexp@aol.com |
All
content, graphics, and text in part or in whole, unless otherwise noted.
This
website and its authors are not affiliated, employed nor represent the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Transit Authority,
The Transit Museum, the City of New York, the State of New York or any
other municipal governmental
agency; or any private company contracted by the previous agencies; and
no such affiliation is implied or suggested.
.
