[PRCo] Re: [Fwd: Re: A 77/54 Bus in 1964? Also - A 10%/year loss?]

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Jim and Fred

There is much truth to decentralizing central shop functions

While TTC had an excellent Hillcrest shop and CTA bus had 77th St,
there was (and still is) some sense to spread the work. It depends on the
system and the qualifications at the shop. and the unions involvd.

For example, I believe that big garages should have a body and paint
shop to do quick small jobs locally;

On the otherhand, CTA buses were cycled to 77th St daily for brake work.

There is also a third way...have a central shop for parts amd umit exchange
CTA rapid transit works this way. Few cars actually go to Skokie.

Harold Geissenheimer

Jim Holland wrote:

>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: A 77/54 Bus in 1964?    Also - A 10%/year loss?
>Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 19:44:41 -0400
>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>References: <3DA091A7.21F1E5E7 at pacbell.net>
><3DA0A90B.8EDC4C22 at supernet.com><3DA0CD2A.89EE7C8D at pacbell.net>
><3DA1A70E.BF471F28 at supernet.com><3DA1FCFF.62B02159 at pacbell.net>
><3DA21068.AC0B9F67 at supernet.com><3DA2E274.90908 at pitt.edu>
><3DA32277.2E8CE5C2 at pacbell.net>
>
>
>By 1963 and maybe even earlier, PRC had shifted most
>rail car repairs out of Homewood to the individual car houses.
>PAT made a big issue of that in the condemnation, saying
>that PRC should not get what they want for the property
>because they had not been cycling cars through Homewood for
>period A, B and C inspections.  The Railways Company
>countered that the road failure rate had dropped as a
>result of having car house crews (Keating, Tunnel nd Craft)
>inspect and repair cars.  You decide who was telling the
>truth...  If you want the actual documents, look in the
>PAT/PRC Condemnation File in the library at the
>University of Pittsburgh.
>
>A patronage loss of 5 percent a year could come somewhere
>close to a 10 percent cash loss if you are living with
>inflation of 5 percent per year and the city is preventing
>you fron fare increases and route abandonments.
>Remember that the Pittsbutrgh City Solicitor (Ms. Finkelhor)
>managed to get all the PRC abandonment proposals tabled in
>1963 claiming that if PRC were to loose money (or reduce
>the income), the county's condemnation price would be lower.
>
>Certainly they were not reinvesting any money.  But that
>doesn't mean they made any money.  This was not run on a cash
>basis.  Just because you cannot cover accrued depreciation
>doesn't indicated that you didn't loose money.
>
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