[PRCo] Re: [Fwd: Pittsburgh Rwy Cars]

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Harold:

You brought up one interesting point here and that is the Securities
Divestitute Act.  It is very easy to believe that some disgruntled power
or gas customer didn't like to subsidize trolley cars that he didn't
ride.  But the public is generally blind to these things.  

Based on the selective enforcement of the law (New Orleans Public
Service for example turned a blind eye to that law for half a century),
it would be much easier for me to believe that the law was written in
response to efforts by the utility industry, perhaps under cover
efforts, to ditch the transit services that were a burden on
profitability.  What can you add?  

Fred Schneider 

Harold Geissenheimer wrote:
> 
> Greetings to every one
> 
> West Penn was also responding to the Federal SEC rules to divest the
> power company from transportation.  This included not only the rail lines
> but also their initial bus line to South Connellsville.  At the same time
> the parent Potomas Edison Co of Hagerstown was selling off the
> Blue Ridge Bus Lines (Wash & Balt to Pgh and Cleveland).  I would
> suspect that they also saw red ink in the handwriting on the wall.
> 
> Blue Ridge/Potomac Edison/West Penn worked with many of their
> employees to keep services intact.  That ranged from operations
> to Washington & Charleroi, the bus terminal in Washington, and
> even a 2 bus Blairville Bus Co. sold to a dispatcher.
> 
> They coordinated the sale of the Penn Bus/Blue Ridge route to
> Carnegie, Bridgeville and Hickory to Community Transit Service and sold
> them the almost new South Connellsville GMC buses.  These
> stayed with Community for years and were eventually transferred to
> PAT in 1964.  It was this company that replaced most of the Harmony
> Short Line in 1961.  It was then I became Community's Manager.
> 
> A little side story of ancient history.   West Penn car #832 was labeled
> the Valley Route and was housed in Tarentum before being moved to the
> Coke Region.   In the late 1940's, West Penn purchased its first buses
> which were housed along side #832 in Connellville.  These are the buses
> that were sold to Community Transit.  When Community took over Harmony
> in 1961, several of these were sent to Tarentum where they were housed in
> the old West Penn barn which had been used by Harmony since 1937.  So
> we have an interesting play by play:  Tarentum to Connellsville to
> Bridgeville
> and then on to Tarentum and the West Penn barn.  This building was used
> by PAT until the HarmarGarage was built and I believe it is still used
> as a tire company shop.
> 
> Now about the TV.  In the late l940's and early 1950's several important
> things affected transit ridership.  One was the 5 day week replacing the 5
> 1/2
> work on Saturday week.  Two was TV.  It hit the movie business very
> hard.  Three was the automobile.  Four was the closing of mines and mills.
> Five was the shift to shopping centers from the many downtowns.  You
> had to see how crowded these downtowns were on Saturday and suddenly
> they were empty
> 
> The Fayette Coach Co (owned by Lincoln Coach of Irwin) took over
> the main WestPenn routes but abandoned them shortly after.  One thing
> they found out was that rail passengers boarded at isolated car stops away
> from the highway.  Bus passengers were standing along the highway and were
> frequently given a ride.
> 
> I know from my own experience that the TV and Saturday thing affected
> local bus lines in Tarentum and New Kensington.  Also in Oil City, the
> Citizens Transit (ex Citizens Traction) purchased 5 new diesel buses in
> 1950
> and quit shortly thereafter.  Citizens was owned by the same owners as
> Montour Motor Coach in Pgh where I first worked in the transit business.
> I once worked a one week vacation replacement in Oil City in 1950.
> These were hard years in Western Pennsylvania.  I know.  I was there.
> 
> Remember this about the TV replacing the movie.  People who went to the
> movie by transit made an extra round trip.  That was almost profit.  Now
> they stayed home.  Pittsburgh was similarly affected as the downtown movie
> business dropped.  Thats why the Penn and Stanley movies are now stage
> shows.
> 
> Thanks for listening.  Best wishes.
> 
> Harold Geissenheimer
> 
> ROGER Jenkins wrote:
> 
> > Well Fred if two publications said it was TV that reduced the riding on
> > West Penn and you did not believe it, what do you think the real reason
> > was? To me it sounded plausible that the draw of watching Ed Sullivan
> > and a whole lot of other things on the 12 inch sets like my neihbor had
> > where us kids went to watch  it, made perfect sense. Instead of riding
> > the trolley to the local bijou , people stayed home glued to that new
> > fangled picture box !