ERA BULLETIN — MAY, 2019 The Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 62, No. 5 May, 2019 The Bulletin A FARE INCREASE MEMORY Published by the Electric Railroaders’ by Henry Raudenbush Association, Inc. P. O. Box 3323 Grand Central Station This article was inspired by an item that ap- to subway traffic), a row of the small three- New York, NY 10163 peared in the New York Times on April 12, 2019 bar turnstiles, removed from buses and concerning the 1948 New York City transit fare PCCs were installed, and among them one For general inquiries, or Bulletin submissions, increase. of the old ticket chopper boxes used by the contact us at A friend and I went down to our local station IRT before they went to turnstiles in the bulletin@erausa. org (169th St on the IND Queens Line, then the or on our website at 1920s. You dropped the transfer ticket in the erausa. org/contact terminal) that night. He paid the last nickel box, and were counted through one of those fare, and I paid the first dime fare. We knew turnstiles. A platform man watched that you Editorial Staff: that there would be huge mob at Times Sq did use a ticket. Jeffrey Erlitz competing for the honor, but as we expected, If you started on the subway, you paid your Editor-in-Chief we had no competition at 169 St. Right be- dime fare in the usual way. At a busy transfer Ronald Yee hind me, a guy came running down from a station, inside the fare paid area, there was a Tri-State News and connecting bus, with his nickel ready, but he small booth that had been installed. You paid Commuter Rail Editor had to find a dime. the 2 cents to man there, and he punched Alexander Ivanoff The turnstiles had been equipped with a out another small ticket, with a machine in North American and dime slot parallel to the nickel slot, and there the counter just like a movie box of- World News Editor was a cap on the top with an off center slot, fice. Boarding the bus, you handed that ticket David Ross held in place by a couple of screws. That to the driver. Production Manager way, the Turnstile Maintainer only had to What might be considered the longest-ever Copyright © 2019 ERA loosen the screws, turn the cap 180 degrees, transfer walkover was set up between the and retighten the screws. subways and 3rd Ave “L” at South Ferry, and Most of the buses, both NYCTS and private the bus terminal in St George – 5 miles on This Month’s operators, had had fare boxes that would the ferry. The 12-cent combination fare was Cover Photo: take nickels (and some also dimes) but had Public Service 2213 on the applied between Staten Island buses and the 49/Union route heading to no way to deal with pennies. Until new fare- subway. The ferry had its own separate 5- Bound Brook, Broad Street boxes were put in, the pennies for the 7-cent cent fare. at the DL&W station, New- ark, 8/25/1935. Photogra- or 6-cent fare had to be dropped in a cigar When the South Ferry branch of the Third pher unknown, Jeffrey Erlitz box. (Some of the private companies were Ave “L” was abandoned, free transfers were collection. only allowed 6 cents; I think they had to go to provided between the “L” and M15 bus be- litigation to get to 7 cents). tween Chatham Square and South Ferry. If The most interesting detail was the 12-cent you boarded the bus between Chatham combination fare for surface plus subway Square and the ferry, there was a special trips. This was a great breakthrough. The transfer form sold on the bus. In This Issue: mechanics were complex, and required a lot A couple of years later, the bus fare was The Genesis of of new or recycled facilities! raised to 10 cents, and the combination fare Dashing Dan — Starting on a bus, you paid the 7-cent fare to 15 cents. A little later, the combination fare A New Jamaica in the farebox. Then, near the rear door, was eliminated, and once again double fares and the Main there was a small vending machine which were required to parts of the city not served took a nickel, and spit out a little card tick- by the subway – particularly eastern Queens Line Complete et. In our station (which had very heavy bus and all of Staten Island. …Page 2 1 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — MAY, OCTOBER, 2019 2000 THE GENESIS OF DASHING DAN — A NEW JAMAICA AND THE MAIN LINE COMPLETE by George Chiasson (Continued from April, 2019 issue) (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN — MAY, 2019 The Genesis of Dashing Dan (Continued from page 2) (Continued on page 4) 3 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — MAY, OCTOBER, 2019 2000 The Genesis of Dashing Dan (Continued from page 3) (Continued next issue) 4 ERA BULLETIN — MAY, 2019 MEMBER ROBERT S. KORACH (ERA #573) PASSES AWAY The following appeared on the website of the Philadelphia Born in Cleveland, Mr. Korach spent the first half of Inquirer on April 19, 2019. Mr. Korach was an ERA member his life in the Midwest. Right out of high school, he took for 78 years, having joined on July 26, 1940. a job checking the suitcases of rail passengers at Robert Stone Korach, 95, of Cherry Hill, the former Cleveland Union Terminal. head of operations for the PATCO Lindenwold High- “The pleasure and reward of this position was my abil- Speed Line and a nationally known expert on public ity to constantly monitor the big blackboard that an- transportation, died Thursday, April 18, of complications nounced the comings and goings of the (trains),” he from a stroke at Samaritan Hospice in Voorhees. said in an undated autobiography. A longtime friend, J. William Vigrass, a transportation He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1940, economist, said Mr. Korach excelled at generating oper- interrupting his studies to join the Army during World ating plans for public transit systems. War II. He served with the military police and in a Trans- “He was a master of scheduling, how to get the most portation Corps Officers Candidate Training School in out of the equipment and manpower to provide excel- New Orleans before being honorably discharged in lent service at a reasonable cost,” Vigrass said. 1945. He joined the Army Reserves in 1945, retiring in Mr. Korach could do advanced calculations and form 1965 with the rank of Major. plans in his head that few others could follow. “He was After the war, he returned to the University of Wiscon- really something special,” Vigrass said. sin and graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in Mr. Korach was recruited in 1967 to become the first economics. While there, he took jobs such as baggage employee and head of operations for the PATCO Lin- handler for the Milwaukee Railroad in Madison and denwold High-Speed Line. He recruited Vigrass to han- part-time operations manager for the university’s intra- dle fares and set up stations. mural bus system. At the time, the PATCO line was under construction. It Mr. Korach’s first career job was in the Cleveland was the first of the post-World War II “modern” rapid rail Transit System, where he rose to Superintendent of transit systems, and under Mr. Korach’s leadership, it Schedules. In 1962, he was hired by the Los Angeles became the national model for effective and efficient Metropolitan Transit Authority. He combined the Pacific rapid rail transit, his family said. Electric rail routes with the Los Angeles railway system. Virtually all the new rapid transit systems sent their In 1965, he became the Manager of Operations Plan- senior supervisors to PATCO to learn Mr. Korach’s man- ning for the MBTA in Boston before moving to head of agement techniques. After a short period of retirement operations for PATCO. from PATCO in 1983, he returned to work as the Assis- An avid historian, Mr. Korach was often asked to write, tant General Manager of Operations for the Southern edit, and critique scholarly articles on early electric rail- California Rapid Transit District. ways. He also collaborated on books about electric He stopped working full time in 1988 and became a transit systems in Ohio and Pennsylvania. consultant for new rail projects across the country. The Mr. Korach was a mentor to many young men and highlight of his career was being inducted in 1995 into women who worked in public transit. He made lasting the American Public Transit Association’s Hall of Fame friendships across generations and traveled extensively for his contributions to the industry. into his 90s. Robert S. Korach. Photo from American Public Transit Association 5 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — MAY, OCTOBER, 2019 2000 Commuter and Transit Notes No. 364 by Ronald Yee and Alexander Ivanoff evoke a sense of fluid movement, the rich tradition of The 4% fare increase for MTA commuter rail as well wrought-iron fence-work, as well as the cyclical rhythm as NYCT subways and buses was approved at the of the day and village life. Work at the Port Chester sta- March MTA Board meeting. It is expected to bring tion is virtually complete with only the landscaping work around $336 million more in passenger revenue to the remaining to be done around the station area. The sta- MTA. Details on the fare increases were provided in the tion has a new canopy covered kiss-and-ride plaza, a April, 2019 Bulletin.