Volatile Fantasy (or What If You Were Running PAT During the1960's?)

[Edward H. Lybarger]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Jim Holland
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 5:12 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: Re: Volatile Fantasy (or What If You Were Running PAT During
the1960's?)


Greetings!

Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> If I'm in charge of the Port Authority, I'm beholden to some fairly
powerful
> political types and will do essentially what they direct me to do.

	Wasn't PRCo answerable to the PUC - politicos?!?!  They couldn't make
many moves on their own without PUC approval - unless they were doing it
totally on prw!  Schedules, abandonments, extensions, and fares are all
items of concern to the PUC.

THE PUC WAS INFLUENCED BY POLITICIANS, TO BE SURE.  BUT THEY ALSO WERE
RESPONSIBILE FOR KEEPING THE COMPANIES SOLVENT, THUS THE FARE INCREASES
DURING THE '50S.  THE CITY CONSTANTLY POUNDED PRCo, DATING FROM THE
DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER OF CITY GOVERNMENT IN THE '30S.  THERE IS IN OUR LIBRARY
A POORLY-WRITTEN STUDY FROM ABOUT 1936 THAT DEMANDS (AND VERY PETULANTLY, I
MIGHT ADD!) THE REPLACEMENT OF ALL THE "OBSOLETE" TROLLEYS AND COMPLETE
OWNERSHIP OF THE TRANSIT SYSTEM BY THE CITY.  ANNIE ALPERN WAS DAVEY
LAWRENCE'S HATCHET LADY -- SHE WAS THE CITY SOLICITOR, AND WAS BEST NOTED
FOR HER EARLY '50S QUOTE, "THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO PRCo IS FOR
IT TO DISAPPEAR."  FACT IS, SHE COULDN'T CONTROL SCHEDULES AND FARES AND THE
LIKE, SO SHE KEPT UP THE LEGAL ASSAULTS AT TAXPAYERS' EXPENSE TO WEAR THE
COMPANY DOWN.  MR. PALMER WAS TOUGHER THAN SHE WAS, THOUGH, AND THE PAT
ENABLING LEGISLATION WAS THE WAY AROUND HIM.  ONCE IT'S IN THE PUBLIC ARENA,
ANYTHING GOES.  AND ONE MUST ADMIT, PAT CERTAINLY PROVIDED MANY, MANY
SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS ACROSS THE COUNTY (WE ALSO HAVE PHOTOS OF THE FORMER
BUS OPERATORS' PROPERTIES AND EQUIPMENT, MOST OF WHICH WERE ABYSMAL.

SORRY FOR THE "SHOUTING."  I'M NOT ADEPT ENOUGH TO COLOR MY ANSWERS AND
RESORTED TO THIS TO DISTINGUISH THEM.
	There were also those within politics who were greedy to an extreme.
The name of Anne X. Alpern comes to mind - something to do with city
govt in the 1940-1950s (please correct this if I am wrong.)  She would
constantly denigrate the railway in hopes of reducing its value so the
city could buy it cheap (for far less than its market value) and operate
it themselves.
	So PRCo battled politics as well but still tried to maintain reasonable
service at a reasonable price, otherwise, they would have gone belly up
altogether!
	The problem with an entity like ({[PAT]}) is that it is a
quasi-government agency and is far more politics than service.  The
price of the service might be a bargain, but the waste because of
inflated prices of equipment and parts which govt. agencies are prone to
approve digs deep into the pockets of the taxpayer.
	While I am a big believer in democracy and free enterprize, I also
recognize that there is no one system that meets all needs.  So within
any free-democratic society, some forms of socialism will also exist.
That is public transit today - a form of socialism and one which the
majority seem to approve of.

> So while it would be fun to imagine "what coulda been," the reality is
that
> what went down had, in the inimitable Pittsburgh style, to happen.

	And it is also said that it was necessary that The Christ would suffer
and be crucified . . . but woe to the man thru whose hands this
happened!  And what had to happen in Pgh - what was the motive behind
its happening?  I suggest that the motives behind the dismantling of
PRCo were anything but pure, and therein lies the problem!
	Time mellows a person and I am more of a realist now than at the time
that ({[PAT]}) took over.  *Absolutely NOTHING* lasts forever and thus
trolleycars as I knew them would eventually be replaced.

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
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