Speed

[Kenneth and Tracie Josephson]

John Swindler wrote:

> q.  Why does the light rail line follow the alignment through
> Beechview-Castle Shannon-South Hills Village?
> a.  That's the Skybus alignment.

Wow, John. Very interesting observations. I would suppose the
Beechview-Castle Shannon stretch of the alignment would have stayed no
matter what. It was an established transit corridor and most of it was
very well patronized. I suppose in any form, i.e. "conventional
streetcar", "modern" light rail, Skybus or PAT busway, it made sense to
retain this corridor. 

The PCC proved to be an excellent vehicle for this type of service. It
also served well on "The Shaker" as well as the Newark Subway and the
various Boston and Philadelphia subway-surface lines. One should look at
Milwaukee's "Rapid Transit" line serving the western and southwestern
suburbs to see the tragedy of having to serve such a line with
conventional interurban cars. The excessive power consumption, excessive
speed and excessive braking between stops was truly a waste. Another
line which desperately needed PCCs was the Rochester Subway. Ken J.