[PRCo] Re: Munhall this Morning

[Fred Schneider]

$2.50 sounds cheap.  Remember that nickel fare in 1900?  I know you 
don't.  But the easiest way to adjust for inflation over the last 
hundred years is simply to move the decimal two places .... 5 cents to 5 
dollars.   Because the load factors are so much lower today, $5.00 
simply does not cover it. 
Based on a typical fare of over a dollar now and a national farebox 
recovery rate of about 30 percent, we are actually paying $5 just for 
operating costs.  If you want to add in capital costs (new cars, new 
buildings, new track, capitalized mid-life overhauls) and the value of 
taxes that private companies used to pay and are lost now (about 10 
percent in Pennsylvania), I think we are actually paying somewhere under 
$10 per passenger today. 

You're paying for it in your taxes, you might as well use it. 

matt wrote:

>Good memories.  Thanks for sharing.
>
>No, honestly, I think that somewhere in the Pittsburgh area a carline might 
>be a viable alternative and even a tourist attraction.   Some day.
>Gas prices being what they are now, and jeeez, with PAT talking about 
>raising the base fare to $2.50 and cutting weekend service...yikes, probably 
>not a time to propose anything unusual.  But,  Lord knows it is working well 
>in other cities.  The Munhall to Waterfront area is a low speed trip anyway. 
>But, it'd probably take an act of God to make it reality.
>
>Gas prices being what they are, and jeeez, with PAT talking about raising 
>the base fare to $2.50 and cutting weekend service...yikes.   Dreaming 
>
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