Existing comment:
Cross-Country by Air and Rail
Coast to Coast
Reprinted courtesy American Airlines, Inc.
In 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (T.A.T.) began providing passenger service between New York and Los Angeles using airplanes by day and trains by night.
Night flying was hazardous, so passengers rode the Pennsylvania Railroad's night train from New York to Port Columbus, Ohio. There they boarded a Ford Tri-Motor and flew to Waynoka, Oklahoma, where they transferred to a Santa Fe Railway night train. At Clovis, New Mexico, they boarded another Tri-Motor for the final leg to Los Angeles.
T.A.T. air-rail service took a day less than by train alone, but a one-way ticket cost a whopping $338.
Fly or Drive?
In 1929 a one-way ticket across the country cost $338, more than half the price of a new car. A Ford Model A cost $525; a Chevrolet Coach cost $595.
T.A.T. did not have an air mail contract; it depended strictly on revenues from carrying passengers. Although well run, the company was soon in desperate financial shape. |