I would like to know, if somebody of you could tell me how much a first class sleeping car ticket for a single person was for the following trains in the early/mid 50ies:
1.Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Chicago)
2. Super Chief (Chicago-LA)
3.City of Los Angeles (Chicago-LA)
4. North Coast Limited (Chicago-Seattle/Portland)
5. Olympian Hiawatha (Chicago-Tacoma)
How about the NCL in 1965? Chicago to Seattle first class fare:$82.75, plus roomette:$33.80, total:$116.55. Coach fare: $65.16.
Thank you for the info. It gives me an impression of what the other prices might have been…
Old Timetables are sometimes good sources, some contained fare information and some did not.
There were two types of passage, Coach and first class. To ride a sleeper you usually had to buy a first class ticket.
In addition to the first class ticket you had to pay extra for the space you occupied. The upper berth was the least expensive while the larger rooms were more expensive. Finally there was a ten percent tax on the whole thing.
From the June 2, 1956 Milwaukee road TT:
Chicago-Tacoma, First class $78.81 plus $31.60 for a roomette then there was the ten percent tax of $11.04 for a total of 121.45
The federal ticket tax went from 15% to 10% in 1954 IIRC.
April 1952:
Chicago-LA first class $77.61 one way plus $29.40 for a roomette, plus 15%. That would be the same on UP/SFe/RI-SP aside from any extra fare trains, which I forgot to check on.
New Orleans-LA first class 69.47 westward, 69.46 eastward; roomette 26.60 each way.
The ESPEE daylights were $7.50 one way in 1950