If you can't find fare information in old public timetables (and there were entire decades when they either didn't contain any, or -- maddeningly -- showed Pullman berth and room charges but not fares for transportation), you might have to resort to the ICC statistical reports of which a volume was published for each year from 1887 or -88. They have a breakdown by railroad showing, among a mass of figures, revenue per passenger mile. At the turn of the century they would have shown separate figures for NYC, B&A, Big Four, MC, and possibly the Lake Shore broken out separately. Since the numbers are averages they can't be used to calculate specific fares -- the best you can get from it would be a ballpark estimate. Making things more challenging, the mileage for a specific origin and destination was calculated on "short-line mileage"; i.e., the shortest physically possible rail route, whether or not that of the railroad operating the service. For example, as I recall, the DL&W had the shortest mileage from New York to Buffalo, so if the NYC wished to be fare-competitive it had to match that fare, and could do so with the blessing of the ICC. Thus, it's hopeless to try to arrive at a specific fare for a specific journey, but at least the average revenue per passenger mile enables you to come up with a range. Finding the ICC reports is another matter. The library of the National Railway Historical Society has a complete set, but unfortunately it is in temporary storage while the NRHS searches for a new library site. Someplace like the Barriger Library might have a set. FWIW.
