[PRCo] Re: Reasons for Route 32 Lasting

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I didn't say there was no revenue reason.  They were in business to make
money.  Therefore, there was always a revenue reason.  I clearly said it
existed, in the later years, essentially to serve what little industry
existed on Carson
Street from Smithfield to the Point Bridge, and apparently running to
the West End Circle had some revenue or operational advantages to the
company.  At one time the P&LE had quite a large volume of workers there
in their general office and in the LCL sheds, and perhaps because the
next main complex on the railroad was the principal shops in McKees
Rocks, there were either a large volume of workers moving back and forth
or a considerable number who lived down in McKees Rocks and worked in
the office or freight house or station because of job transfers.    

The city solicitors constantly fought PRC every time
they attempted to abandon any services.  Mrs. Finkelhor, in 1962 or
1963, admitted to newspaper reporters that her goal was to prevent the
company from abandoning any unprofitable bus routes and inclines,
becuase getting rid of them would improve the company's profitability
and as a result, increase the amount the county would have to pay to
condemn the property. There was an abandonment petition before the PUC
at the time of PAT takeover to allow PRC to close down the Castle
Shannon Incline and a whole raft of unprofitable feeder bus routes ... a
petition that Finkelhor openly opposed and tied up in knots.  Shortly
after the PAT takeover, once the stated purpose of reducing company
profits was no longer an issue, and once the PUC was no longer involved,
PAT shut down those routes.

For those who think about keeping Carson Street available ... I was in
Charles Schauk's office when he received a call about 1958 (maybe it was
1956) from the state wanting the power turned off so they could work
freely on the new Fort Pitt Bridge.  Charlie was pissing and moaning
that they had planned to tear the wires down starting the next month,
and this irritated him.  "If I turn the power off now, they'll steal the
wire before I can remove it." There was a lot of truth in his fears ...
when 87 was abandoned, every bit of wire on the ramp leading down into
East Pittsburgh promptly vanished. Charlie was the last Superintendent
of Power and Inclunes for the Railways Company; like by dad and Ed
Lybarger's father, he was an early 1930s graduate from Carnegie Tech, a
Presbyterian, and he had a daughter my age.    

"Dietrich, Robert J." wrote:
> 
> Basically, Fred, you're saying there was no "revenue" reason for the P&LE
> shuttle.  So why did it exist?  Why would PRCo go to all the capital and
> operating expense to keep a line that essentially connected the inclines?  I
> think I asked before, was this a franchise that couldn't go away?  Was PRCo
> forced to keep this line running?
> 
> I know we don't have the real answer but we can always conjecture...
> 
> Bob
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