[PRCo] Re: Photographs - Donora Line

[Fred Schneider]

Jerry et al:

You might try looking at the PAT and SEPTA websites to see if  
business has gone up ... if it has, it would not be unusual for them  
to put out a press release to that effect.  Remember, the purposes of  
a press release are to brag and to divert attention away from  
something you don't want questioned.    It is probably a little too  
early to detect anything in the FTA.gov site.   There is also the  
chance that Ed Tennyson will have picked up on it.

Our local newspaper this morning picked up on findings from John S.  
Herold, Inc., a Houston Research Consulting Firm (and no doubt  
associated with oil interests), which show that gas price increases  
are 80 percent less that college cost increases, 70 percent less than  
medical cost have gone up, 25 percent less than food has advanced,  
and 50 percent less than housing advances.  I'm not sure I trust  
think tank in Houston that puts out those figures, especially when  
they have ignored virtually everything that, like gasoline, is tied  
to the value of our dollar against other currencies.

Has SEPTA's business picked up?  Well, that needs to be measured  
against what has happened to jobs and attractions within the city.   
In the year 2000 (I think), we were all pleased because for the first  
time in several decades the employment estimating sample for  
Philadelphia City showed that jobs were increasing.   But my  
estimator who did the estimate for that city refused to accept it,  
claiming that he didn't trust the sample.  July, 2005, preliminary  
jobs in Philadelphia City / County are down 32,000 under the same  
month in 2001.   Bearing that in mind, I wouldn't expect to see a  
really great increase in SEPTA riders.   Are the people still there?   
Largely.  They are in their cars and driving to the -burbs to work.   
The result is that it takes longer now to drive the Schuylkill  
Expressway from Center City to King of Prussia in the rush hour than  
it does to drive more than 50 miles from Lancaster to King of  
Prussia.  , when we got to the end of the year and adjusted the data  
to a benchmark or count of all jobs, he was right.  It was just one  
more year of a continued downturn.  PATCO's business from New Jersey  
points peaked at around 40,000 a day and then it began to drop as  
center city jobs gradually vanished ... and the weekend PATCO  
business also slowly evaporated as fewer people saw any justification  
to come into the city for dinner, the theater, or a walk around the  
waterfront.   I don't have figures in my head for SEPTA ... maybe  
John Swindler does.

Out in my remote city ... we don't believe in mass transit.  Tomorrow  
we are having an open house to dedicate our new transit terminal  
which was built, under city pressure, several blocks away from where  
any one might want to go.  That's two to three blocks up hill with  
shopping bags.  It was a necessary move to keep buses from stopping  
at the curb in front of stores.  After all, we wouldn't want that.   
Now would we....

Fred Schneider  - the resident cynic.

On Aug 25, 2005, at 2:58 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net>  
<mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>
>
>> Wanted pictures of Charleroi Interurban/Donora line streetcars?    
>> I have a number of the
>>
>    Charleroi interurban operation, but only a few of the Donora car  
> in operation  looking for
>    pictures of cars on the 10th to 11th street passing siding on  
> Mckean Avenue or on the north end
>    of town between 14th and 15 th streets on Meldon Avenue.  Any  
> help given is greatly appreciated,
>    i can remember as a boy sitting on an upstairs porch in this  
> area looking at and listening to "two"
>    Jones low floor cars side by    side with their I guess  
> compressors chug chugin along.     Love to
>    think back to the good ole days of Street Cars.
>
>    Second question - wonder if the LRV ridership is up in  
> Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with the
>     Gasoline prices   at   all time highs!
>
>     Jerry Matsick
>     Former Mon Valley Resident
>
>
>
>