[PRCo] Re: development and transportation infrastructure.

[John Swindler]

I enjoyed looking at your link to the state budget, Derrick, which is 
apparently something PennDOT management doesn't care to share with employees 
- or is also unaware that it exists (that should open a flood-gate of snide 
comments)

Anyway, was amused to note that I spend about 1/3 of the public 
transportation budget (contracting, invoicing, and executing payments).  
Hmmmm.  Should I question what the other 26 people do in this bureau????

John (looking forward to joining Fred the third in retirement)




>From: Derrick J Brashear <shadow at dementia.org>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] development and transportation infrastructure.
>Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:08:38 -0500 (EST)
>
>
>For you people who hate numbers, skip to the bottom. Also, I'll pick on
>Fred, Mr. Change the Subject, for not doing so.
>
>On Sat, 14 Dec 2002, Fred Schneider wrote:
>
> > And to a greater extent I blame the sprawl for the end of service.  Note 
>that
>
>That's only necessarily true if you assume the funding model that existed
>at the time could be the only valid model.
>
> > auto registrations went up from 0.5 million to 1.5 million in 
>Pennsylvania
> > between 1920 and 1930 and the major interurbans disappeared after 1930.  
>And
> > they had no money to begin with ... between 1900 and 1950 the trolleys 
>in
> > Pennsylvania lost $46 million, which comes out well over a billion 
>dollars in
> > today's terms.
>
>So in 50 years they lost 5/3 of this year's PA Highway and Bridge budget
>(state portion), or 4/3 of this year's mass transit budget (again, state
>portion). Note that the highway and bridge maintenance budget (again,
>state portion) would completely fund this debt with some to spare. If you
>want to normalize 50 years of losses into today's dollars, understand that
>you've stated the losses are chicken scratch once you start talking about
>government funding, to expound on the point I made above.
>
>Source: Page 18 of
>http://www.oit.state.pa.us/budget/lib/budget/2002-2003/bib/bib.pdf
>
>Incidentally, page 4 indicates the total budget is $45.5b, and the
>"general fund" portion is about $21b.
>
> > They could not afford to fight.  And even in 1875 they
> > couldn't afford a fight.  The only people who made money in the transit
> > business were the contractors, promoters, and vehicle manufacturers, and 
>many
> > of them figured a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of vigtory by 
>accepting
> > stock instead of cash for their work.
>
>So it's like trying to make money from the internet.
>
> > When was Cranberry Township named that?
>
>http://www.twp.cranberry.pa.us/information/history/htext3.html claims
>1804. It's possible Cranberry is wrong about when they got their name, but
>I doubt they're off by more than a year or two.
>
> > And what villages on the Harmony
> > route were in the township?
>
>They answer that too:
>http://www.twp.cranberry.pa.us/information/history/htext9.html
>
>Quoting them:
>The passenger stations, north to south, were as follows:
>
>    1. West. At the end of Wolfe Run Road.
>    2. Plains Church. By the stonewall abutments on Plains Church Road,
>just east of the Plains United Presbyterian Church.
>    3. Franklin Road. At the corner of Franklin Road and Hope Road.
>    4. Criders. Present-day Dutilh Road near Burger King.
>    5. Dutilh. Rear of the Boron Station on Route 19.
>
>Clearly the history is a bit out of date. Boron is gone. I don't have the
>Harmony Route maps on hand, so I don't know if they mean the BP station by
>the turnpike interchange or something (I assume) further south, where I
>have a vague idea of a Boron-shaped building. (Distinctive, sort of like
>going around and saying "That was a Winky's".


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