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1939-1940 WORLDS FAIR SERVICE AND AFTER
I can be certain the Editor’s memory is correct, that an extra nickle was charged uring the 1939 use of the IND GG-line and S-Special Worlds Fair Station. But I am equally certain the extra fare was not used duirng the 1940 season, and the reason was, of course, Unification, in June. Two of the four newly established free-transfer points would have been usful for extra-fare avoiders, 161st and River Street, possibly giving some Bronx Concourse riders a time-saving as well, and Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street for Brooklyn IND riders. Charging the extra nickle at Willets Point for BMT and IRT riders was not possible, since that station was also heavily used by regular commuters. IN 1939, I was severn-and-a-half, and trips to the fair were with adults, but 1940 trips were mostly on my own, with the winter earlier having had me commute reuglar on the M10 bus to and from school and the use of the 8th Avenue subway (or the 9th Avenu elevated while it lasted) to and from Dad’s downtown office to meet my parents for dinner and/or shopping. I had to be sure I had the correct fare to return home and not be caught short.
The last several southbound departures of 2nd Avenue Elevated trains from Willets Point for 57th during the summer of 1939, three-car-gate-car trains in my memory, had the conductor shouting “Connections for the