By comparing the receiving with forwarding agents reports, the route reported by forwarding agent is confirmed. Weights, however, can not be verified in the auditors office, and if the receiving agent does not report an error made by forwarding agent, the mistake will go uncorrected unless noticed by a traveling auditor or other official. An audit of weights may be had, however, by providing a column for that purpose on forwarding and receiving record sheets. A comparison in the auditor's office will then locate discrepancies in the weights reported. The weights may also be used in compiling statistics of baggage tonnage.

CHAPTER IX

INTERLINE TICKETS AND BAGGAGE.

A ticket which is good for transportation over one or more foreign lines in addition to the selling road, is designated as an interline," ticket. It is generally a coupon ticket sold for a particular trip, but as interchangeable mileage and coupon books are in all important particulars interline tickets, they will be considered as such in this outline of the methods used in making settlements.

The issuance and use of interchangeable transportation books are usually governed by the rules of an association of railways. A group of lines traversing certain territory agree upon the form of ticket to be sold and the plan to be followed in accounting. Some of the books used contain coupons representing one mile of transportation each while in other cases each coupon is good for five cents worth of transportation over any of the lines in the association.

The books used by all roads in the agreement are uniform, with the exception of a different number or symbol for each line, which is printed on every coupon.

The books are consecutively numbered, and usually contain a printed contract that must be signed by the purchaser.

As coupons are collected by conductors they reach the auditor's office, where they are separated from other tickets. The coupons for each selling railway are placed together, to be used in the monthly settlements.

At the end of each month the coupons, and a bill for the amount they represent, are mailed to the railway which sold them, and the association rules usually necessitate prompt settlement. Remittances of balances are made, the debtor line sending voucher for the difference between the amount of coupons it accepts and the amount accepted by its creditor line.

Unexpired unused coupon books are redeemed by the issuing railway, settlement being usually made by charging current tariff rates for the coupons used.

Some association agreements provide for a central bureau which acts as a clearing-house in making settlements between the lines. The expense of maintaining the bureau is prorated upon a mileage or gross earnings basis, and the bureau in some cases makes refunds as well as settlements.

There are a great many varieties of interline tickets sold for one-way or two-way (round) trips. The ordinary skeleton, multiple-destination and other forms of interline tickets are made up on the same general plan. This is that there shall be one or more coupons for each line over which the passenger travels.

The reports of sales are made by the lines selling interline tickets, to all of the lines over which passengers are routed. These reports are made monthly and are compiled from the station agents' reports of interline tickets sold.

PLEASE MAKE NO ALTERATIONS ON THIS REPORT. IF ANY DISCREPANCIES.ARE FOUND, ADVISE BY LETTER AND CORRECTIONS WILL BE MADEIN SUBSEQUENT STATEMENT.

.AUDITOR.

FIG. 17.-Actual size 9′′ wide by 12′′ high.

The form of report (Fig. 17) generally used contains spaces for the names of selling stations and destinations, and the forms of tickets. These are followed by columns in which are entered the consecutive opening and closing ticket numbers, number sold, through rate, proportion due the foreign line and total amount due for each kind of ticket sold.

As these reports are received by the "foreign " line they are compared with the coupons that have been lifted by conductors. It may be well at this point to call attention to the desirable features of this plan of accounting, which has been used for a long period by steam railways and to a large extent in later years. by electric interurban lines.

If the freight plan of making settlements on the basis of received ' reports were followed there would no doubt be

many more errors in ticket settlement reports, than there are at present. Conductors are more likely to miss collecting ticket coupon from a passenger than a freight shipment is to go entirely astray. When the issuing line sells a ticket it is practically a certainty that the ticket will be included in its reports to the foreign lines interested. If a ticket is omitted, it is hardly likely that the foreign line conductor will also fail to collect it, and when the auditor examines the coupons lifted, a correction notice is sent to the issuing line. If "received" reports were made, the tickets that conductors failed to collect would help swell the number of errors made by station agents and clerks.

Settlements are usually made promptly upon receipt of monthly reports, and corrections are taken into account at the time of the next settlement.

The correction sheet (Fig. 18) which is sent to the auditor of the

MR...

AUDITOR....

1.90...

DEAR SIR: Please note the following corrections on your Interline Ticket Report for..-and take into account in your next statement.

Respectfully,

Auditor.

as

issuing line as soon as his ticket reports have been checked, is a form somewhat similar in columnar ruling to the interline sales report. At the right of the sheet are columns headed reported" and "should be." The incorrect rates and amounts reported are inserted in the first series of these columns followed by the correct figures. If tickets have been omitted entirely, the amounts are entered only in the columns headed "should be."

When the monthly reports have been exchanged by issuing lines, a balance is struck, and payment is made by the debtor line. Some railways make drafts upon debtor lines for balances, and this has a tendency to expedite settlements which might otherwise be carelessly delayed..

The form of draft (Fig. 19) ordinarily used is a sheet 3 x 81 inches which contains at its left side a brief statement of the ac

count. In order to save writing, the names of the months are printed and it is only necessary to enter the debit and credit figures at the proper places. If the draft is used for other purposes, such as freight settlements, a description of the accounts settled is written in the body of the draft.

Tickets are sometimes sold, giving the passenger the privilege of different routes beyond a certain junction. When this is done, the interline ticket is printed with some form of coupon that is an order upon the agent of connecting line to issue an interline ticket of different routing in exchange for the one taken up. This complicates the accounting somewhat, as the tickets have already been reported to the lines interested in the original routing.

The exchange is made upon authority of the passenger or traffic department of the line making the exchange. The auditor sends monthly statements of coupon tickets issued in exchange for tickets of foreign lines' issue, to the interested lines. The tickets lifted in exchange for the ones issued, are sent with the statements. The form used contains columns for date, issuing line, where sold, form, and consecutive numbers of the tickets taken up. These are followed by columns describing the tickets issued in exchange, and a statement of the amount due the issuing line for making the exchanges.

These reports are checked with the accompanying tickets, by the foreign line auditor. It is then necessary to correct the reports he has made of the original routing, and this is done