Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/125

 The Heyday of the Poppenhusens and one hour ten minutes for the Fire Island Express, which stopped only at Flushing and Garden City. The fare structure was as follows:

After the take-over of the South Side R.R.s eastern end in 1874, the rates were reduced from 15 to 20¢ under the former South Side rates.

Besides the conventional one-way tickets, the Central R.R. sold "family tickets," being packages with a strip of thirty tickets, each good for one passage. The North Side division in December 1873 substituted commutation cards for commutation books. The holder showed the card only when requested, and with it he could travel over the road ten times a day if he chose. The strictest check on tickets on the road was at Hunter's Point, where a passenger had to show his ticket at the door of the waiting room in the depot before being allowed to enter the cars. This occasioned some tall swearing, as we learn from the papers, when a man with his coat snugly buttoned up, and his arms full of bundles, was mildly requested to show his bit of pasteboard, probably tucked away in an inner pocket for safe keeping.

Routing on the Poppenhusen system was interesting. Trains from Hunter's Point ran through either to Whitestone or Babylon (later Patchogue). Often one train did duty for both Great Neck and Whitestone; the train was broken up at Whitestone Junction on the meadows, half the cars being hauled to Whitestone by a second engine dispatched from the College Point