[PRCo] Re: 4398

[John Swindler]

Yes, $2 per gallon is still cheap.  Couple days ago say a reference that to 
adjust for inflation since 1981, gas should cost around $2.80 per gallon 
today.

However, back in 1981 I was lucky to put 10,000 miles per year on a car.  
Today it's 35,000  miles per year ----  correction:  using public transit 
from Hershey since last Sept. will eliminate over 10,000 miles per year.   
Another factor is that my '95 Ford Taurus gets about 30 miles per gallon, 
rather then the 20 miles per gallon that was able to coax out of a '72 Dodge 
Dart.  Now about those SUVs that so many suburban folks have purchased past 
couple years that I see idling in congested rush hour traffic......

Fred talks about the price of gas in Europe being so much higher.  Actually 
the price of gasoline is about the same.  It's the government taxes that are 
so much higher.  Wish I could remember the exact numbers, (you hear 
something, think 'that's interesting', forget abut it, then try to remember 
the details several years later - very frustrating) but 4-5 years ago heard 
that OPEC oil price was about 50 cents per gallon; refining and 
transportation was about 50 cents; and taxes about 50 cents.  However in 
Europe, the taxes were about $3-$4 per gallon, which accounted for cost 
difference at pump.

John



>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: 4398
>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 19:05:45 -0500
>
>Thanks.  I want to see it [Glendale] later this year.
>
>A tad over $2 a gallon?  Sounds cheap to me.  I've got to inquire of my 
>friends in Europe to see how much gasoline prices have gone up over there.  
>Germany and England were nudging past the $5 mark last summer.  I've been 
>told it is getting close to $6 but that needs to be verified.
>
>Fuel here is about $1.75 for 89 octane (VW engines don't like a steady diet 
>of 87 octane fuel)  here is Lancaster.  Seemed about the same in Washington 
>last weekend but some of the turnpike stations were between $1.80 and 
>$1.90.   Housing is a much bigger variable ... I suspect I could sell my 
>place for $200K.  When you get into some of the depressed parts of western 
>Pennsylvania, it gets much lower.  Ed told me that the smaller homes in 
>Meadowlands go for as low as $40,000 but that they go so fast that they are 
>never on a published list by the real estate brokers.   Restaurant meals 
>are a lot cheaper out in the Washington area.  Ed, Janice and I went into a 
>restaurant in his neighborhood last week ... a local place that was always 
>good but had just changed hands ... someone coming out suggested we 
>seriously read the menu and look at the prices before we stay and eat.  
>During dinner we saw quite a few people come in, note that the prices had 
>gone up, and they left.  How much!
>  was
>it?  How expensive was it?  I had white clam sauce over pasta, with about a 
>dozen whole clams in shells around it, a salad, and a glass of wine for $17 
>plus tax and tip.  I thought it was economical and by eastern Pennsylvania 
>standards, it was.
>
>
>rogertrolley.1 at juno.com wrote:
>
> > Hey guys. I would really like to abandon California for a cheaper place 
>to live. Any such place exist near PTM ???  Gas prices here are out of 
>sight and now at $2.23 for reg. !!!!!   cheers rogertrolley      I finally 
>got to San Pedro to see the Red Car operation there with two replica PE 500 
>class cars and the real PE 1057 rebuilt out of a ten and nine hundred class 
>car. Richard Fellows boatyard was next to Terminal Island where hundreds of 
>PE cars were scrapped. He suceeded in dragging 2 hulks over to his yard and 
>spliced them together to create the #1057, which was one number higher than 
>the PE tens went. A great operation of only 1 3\4 miles long. Operates 
>friday thru monday 8am to 6pm.  A great ride with a passing track in 
>middle. Also rode the New Pasadena Gold line. A truley funky operation of a 
>lite rail line on all kinds of right-of-way. Center of freeway ,tunnel, 
>P-R-W, middle of a street at 20mph and numerous road crossings where 
>several collisions and near miss!
>es!
> >  have ocurred with brain dead drivers, plus elevated concrete structures 
>and finally ending at LA UNION STA. where in order to get to downtown ,the 
>Red Line heavy rail is taken three stations !!!!  $3 all day pass gets you 
>anywhere you want to go. Only parking is at Pasadena end at Sierra Madre 
>Sta. where a free parking garage is located beside the I-210.
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Free up your inbox with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage. Multiple plans available. 
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=hotmail/es2&ST=1/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/