ROBERT T. LINCOLN
President of the Pullman Company from 1897 to 1911
As a rule the berths in sleeping cars and seats in parlor cars are on sale at the terminals of the different lines, but to provide facilities at intermediate points where the demand is sufficient to justify it, a limited number of sections are assigned for sale at such stations and tickets may be purchased from them on application. At stations of less importance and where the demand is not sufficient to assign any definite space, an arrangement exists whereby the vacant accommodations are telegraphed by ticket agents or conductors from point to point in order to accommodate passengers taking the trains at such stations. It is also possible and a very common practice to purchase a single sleeping car ticket between stations a great distance apart—for instance, between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, via any of the ordinary routes of travel, by sufficient notice to the ticket agent to enable his reserving the accommodations, and it is also possible to purchase under similar conditions a sleeping car ticket in Havana, Cuba, for a berth, section, or drawing room from Key West, Florida, to Seattle, Washington, a distance of 3,923 miles, taking one hundred and thirty-three hours; not, however, without change, but in connecting cars, giving continuous sleeping car service over various routes.
During the year 1916, 16,398,450 tickets of various forms were printed in Chicago and distributed to the various ticket offices, and in addition, 8,150,000 cash-fare tickets or checks were issued by conductors to travelers purchasing on the train.
In addition to offices where tickets may be purchased, arrangements exist in many thousands of smaller points whereby the public may secure sleeping-car accommodations by application to the station agent or other representative of the railroad company, who will arrange by telephone, telegraph, or letter the desired space to be called for, with a reasonable time at a designated point.
In order to extend to the public every courtesy consistent with lawful requirements and good business principles, the Pullman Company endeavors to provide prompt and careful attention to all requests for refund of fares where service paid for is not furnished, whether through the acts of its agents or employees or the passenger, or due to interruption of traffic.
Applications of this nature are usually made to the company's general offices in Chicago, but when this is not convenient, a report made to the company's representative in any of the important cities throughout the country is forwarded to the central offices and receives the most careful consideration.
It would seem of interest in this connection to state that during the year 1916, 53,743 applications, amounting to $152,446.00, were received for refund of fares, an average of one hundred and seventy-nine for each working day. Of the total number received 48,025 were considered favorably and paid, indicating the liberal policy of the company in such matters. Regardless of the amount involved, great or small, it is necessary that each case be considered on its individual merits, and the result determined with due regard to fairness to the passenger and the company, and not conflicting with legal necessities.
Probably seventy-five per cent of these requests for refunds are occasioned by passengers changing their plans or missing their train. Most frequent is the reason given that the wife has packed the tickets in the trunk, that the cab or taxi broke down, or that the last act of the theater caused unrealized delay. Often the tickets are lost, and not infrequently they are turned in by others for refund.
