[PRCo] Re: "sawmills" - correction

[Fred Schneider]

Interesting, Ed.  Statement about Dallas abandonment contradicts earlier 
information that I had and negates what was written in the second PCC 
book.  It also adds one more city to the list of those where 
abandonments took place because of political pressure, which is the most 
used reason of all (inspire of NCL and what railfans want to 
believe).    While most of the small city and rural trolley lines 
disappeared because of a lack of money, there seems no lack of evidence 
that the most common reason for abandonments in the larger cities was 
political pressure ranging from subtle to outright orders. 

fws

Shirley Tennyson wrote:

> Thank you for  the report from Fred Schneider.
>   Don Duke is wrong. The Blue Line hauls 70,000 per weekday, 73,000
>before the strike and fare increase  Pacific Electric hauled 17,000 to
>Long Beach in 1960.
>    Light Rail in LA is not all  captive riders as they did  not have
>that many passengers on the previous buses.  LeRoy Demery has all of the
>data year by year,   The Red Line is not 120,000.  They said it was
>135,000 but that was an office error.   The honest correct count was
>98,000, but they did have 15,000 more before the Rapid Bus # 720 on
>Wilshire. When the Red Line was new, they gave free transfers from buses
>to it but bus-to-bus cost a quarter.  With Rapid Bus, they removed the
>free subway tranfers and gave them to the bus line, 25 miles long.  That
>permitted them to brag they got forty percent more riders (out of the
>subway mostly)  It ran their costs up  $ 12 million an year, hennce the
>fare increase. 
>    Dallas did not eliminate  their street cars because of suburban
>expansion. I was a stockholder of Dallas Ry & Terminal at the time. The
>Annual Report makes it very clear. I still have it.  Post WWII inflation
>had pushed wages and costs way up so fare increases were needed  The
>City Council was not subtle.  No fare increase unless you abandon street
>cars, even new ones, They had 25 PCC. Boston got them.   Ridership
>evaporated despite the buses into the suburbs.  Now it has come back.
>                  E d    T e n n y s o n 
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