[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh 7-Charles Street abandonment

[Bob Rathke]

I believe that Anne X. Alpern was City Solicitor for Pittsburgh in the late
1940's.  She became a Pa. Supreme Court Jusatice in 1961.

Growing up, I heard the stories about David L. Lawrence (Pittsburgh Mayor,
and then Pa. Governor) being a stockholder in Allegheny Asphalt & Paving
Co.  If anyone questioned this fact, they were told, "Look around.  There
aren't many concrete streets in Pittsburgh, but there are lots of asphalt
streets."  I even have a flyer that the City of Pittsburgh sent to taxpayers
in the mid-1950's; it talked about the city's street paving program, and
showed a photo of a street being paved with ASPHALT!

Bob 5/31/01

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Shirley Tennyson wrote:

>    When I worked for Pitsburgh Railways Co. in 1947-1949 there was no
> public call for buses, other than from corrupt politic- ians. I will
> explain why they were not well intentioned.
> I am sure the public hated the Com- pany by 1960 after all of the
> strikes and fare increases but that was a different management than I
> worked for. You see, the federal government ruled that the Phladelphia
> Company (in Pittsburgh) had to dispose of the P.Ry.Co and Equitable Gas
> Co. Guggennheims saw an opport- unity and bought up the stock cheap dur-
> ing bankrutcy, knowing the company was making good money once the
> depression ended. Guggenheims delayed the reorg- anization until 1952
> when they captured the modernization fund for themselves.  That left the
> new company with no capital.     Anne X. Alpern and Mayor Lawrence were
> no innocent do-gooders. Lawrence was a big stockholder in Allegheny
> Asphalt & Paving Co. and would have benefitted immensely from buses
> which  would require R.Ry.Co to repave the streets that had tracks. An
> investgation was opened into Lawrence's paving con- nections but he just
> happened to be o a six-month vacation in Ireland until the in-
> vestigation was over.                                     In
> 1948,P.Rty.Co was paying $ 1.55 per hour for motormen with an 8.33 cent
> base fare, never increased since maybe 1925 when motormen got half as
> much pay and few fringe benefits. C.D. Palmer went to Lawrence and
> explained to him why fares had to up 1.67 cents after 23 years of
> inflation. Lawrence just picked up the telephone and told the press
> :"The public be damned by P.Ry Co."                     Anne X. Alpern
> pushed the bustitution into the federal court agenda and got a court
> order to hire independant engineers to study bustitution (Lougee & Co).
> The study fond about 1947 that with peripheral exception, street cars
> were te best choice. P.Ry.Co. proved to the court hat some of the
> consultant's exceptions favoring buses were a mistake. he court upheld
> street cars after a complate, fair and open proceedure.
> Nevertheless, when the Trustees of P.Ry Co. asked the Court to approve
> buying 1700 series cars in 1949, Alpern was back in court to block it. I
> did a wee bit of the background research work to support 1700 purchase.
> Again, it did not happen without a full and open court pro- ceedure.
> Judge Loran Lewis was a politcal judge. He was allied with law firms
> doing GM work, according to local sources, I ahve no proof, but I did
> know Harley Swift. I called  on Swift at EBASCO in New York where he was
> their transit con- sutant before going to Harrisburg. He told me who to
> see for emploment in Pitsburgh     Later, when I was Deputy Secretary of
> Transportation for Pennsylvana, Swift came to me looking for consulting
> work after Judge Lewis and Dameron fired him. Swift had promised to
> marry PCC cars in back to back pairs and really run a South Hills Rapid
> Transit Service. That did him in. I have the newspaper story to confirm
> what he told me..                                          Rmember,back
> then, Pgh Motor Coach Co. had higher fares than street cars, low- er
> wages and faster service but still lost money. The other problem was he
> 33 in- dependant, low wage, political bus lnes the politicians set up to
> kill off PRy.Co. Yo did no see that happen in Philadephia un- der he
> same PUC because PTC was pol- pticaly correct, but P.Ry.Co did not pay
> off.  Pennsylvania had a Public Sevice Commission until maybe 1936 when
> Gov- ernor Earle was elected. He abolished the PSC (with legislative
> help) but found hat the public needed some protection after all so he
> created the new PUC with his buddies to run it. Almost anyone who sup-
> ported Governor Earle could get a Pittsburgh bus certificate
> (franchise0. Not so in Philalelphia as I explained above.           When
> I left PRy.Co in 1949, ridership was slipping about three percent as
> people bought new automobiles and gas- oline. In Cleveland and Portland,
> where buses were wipng out street cars at that tme, ridership losses
> were double digit. Pittsbugh did not slip untl Tom Fitzgerald was forced
> out (retired at a ripe age) and CD Palmer took over with no money and an
> annual strike, or so i seemed. Palmer took out his hate for the Union on
> the ridres. Tom Fitzgerald never had a legal strike but there were some
> short (a few hours) local (one ar barn) wilcats that did less harm.
> E d  T e n n y s o n