Contrary to common calculation, there are reasons for believing that combining queues, especially queues of people, may at times be counterproductive. These reasons include customer reaction, jockeying between separate queues, increased costs and service times for combined queues, and the absence of published before-and-after studies.

B normally denotes a feasible basis of a linear program ß always denotes the inverse of the matrix B. .■" '

We describe a method for fitting a least absolute residual (LAR) line through a set of two-dimensional points. The algorithm is based on a labeling technique derived from linear programming. It is suited for interactive data analysis and can be carried out with graph paper and a programmable hand calculator. Tests conducted with a Pascd program b d i c a t e that the algorithm is computationally efficient.