Eastern railroad fares on coach class rose significantly. If a passenger rode the train from New York westward in 1941, $18.50 would have taken him to Chicago. By 1950 the same fare would have gotten him only as far as Youngstown, Ohio. A first-class passenger on eastern routes would have paid 3.3 cents a mile in 1946, but by 1950 he would have paid 4.5 cents. A seventeen-hour coach trip on a railroad cost more than an express bus trip ($15), a nonscheduled airplane trip of four hours ($26), and almost as much as a scheduled air coach trip ($34).

Source: "Dying-Passenger Train," U.S. News and World Reports, 45 (3 October 1958); 36-39.