[PRCo] Re: FINEVIEW

[Donald Galt]

On 4 Apr 2002 at 7:25, Fred #? wrote:

> It seems to me that PAT did provide a form of replacement bus service to
> the Fineview neighborhoods.  I think I saw bus stop signs up there
> within the last year.  The route may just not follow every street that
> the cars did, and that isn't an issue.  

The current 11-D (Perrysville) and 11-E (Fineview) timetable, dated 
31 March 2002, shows the Fineview route as Federal, Henderson, 
Carrie, Catrona, Meadville, Rising Main, Biggs, Glen Rose, 
Hazelton, [Wurtell,] Brule, [Magnet,] Hazelton, Charles to Perrysville, 
returning via Charles, Wilson, Perrysville, Federal.

I have added the streets in [brackets] without which the routing 
would be impossible.

Now, despite appearances, the 21-Fineview travelled entirely in 
dedicated streets except for here and there a jog or cut corner. They 
might not all have looked like streets to you or me, but they did to 
the city planners.

And, with two exceptions, the above routing is identical to that of the 
trolley line. 

First exception: Meadville instead of Lanark. Still, I would all but 
swear that the bus ran on Lanark when I rode it in 1974 and again in 
about 1987.

Second exception: Charles and Wilson, then Perrysville, instead of 
directly via Perrysville (the #21 trolley returned to the city via the #8 
line.) The routing of the 11-E bus gives a sort of service (every hour 
and a half or so) to the territory long ago served by the Charles 
Street Transfer car.

Now, Pittsburgh's topography is notoriously hard to serve with public 
transit. It would be a punishing walk for the residents of Nunnery Hill 
if the 11-E didn't serve them now and again, but they are luckier 
than residents of some other close-in suburbs: don't try visiting the 
West End Outlook without a car unless you are fit enough to handle 
the gruelling half-mile trudge up from Chartiers Street.

On a related subject: there used to be a feeder bus serving the 
northern fringe of Beechview and Shadycrest but I can't find it on the 
rather sketchy PAT map. Has this area become a transit-free zone?

Don