[PRCo] Re: Fw: [Weyrich_Transit] FW: Trouble in Pittsburgh - Route 52

[Boris Cefer]

Change the country to have a streetcar :-)

Boris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Derrick J Brashear" <shadow at dementia.org>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 8:50 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Fw: [Weyrich_Transit] FW: Trouble in Pittsburgh - Route
52


> On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Bill Robb wrote:
>
> > But today you do wait in a terminal for your local
> > bus, especially in small to mid-size cities.  I live
> > in a city of 46,000.  There is a downtown terminal
> > where you can wait inside, a college with a small two
> > shelter loading area (but no inside waiting area) and
> > malls at the north and east ends. You can sit down
> > inside at both malls and wait for the bus.
> >
> > Sadly, very few places offer a streetcar (or bus)
> > every five minutes these days even in the rush hours.
> > It can be a long cold (or hot) wait on a street corner
> > these days.
>
> 67F Trafford bus (which in the last round of heavy cuts was truncated to
> Wilkinsburg-Trafford on Sundays) will now run every 1.5 hours Saturday and
> not at all on Sunday. When I was in high school it was half hourly to
> Wilmerding and hourly to Trafford (with the Trafford trips skipping the
> Wilmerding-side loop). The problem with moving into an older neighborhood
> is that along with no potential for growth you don't have things like a
> mall to keep ridership up (67A cuts are all outbound of Monroeville Mall).
>
> We have been a 2 car family for only 3 years (technically a 3 car family
> for just over one, but the electric car is not yet titled in PA) and bus
> cuts mean that probably needs to stay true for a while. I am starting to
> fear getting old here though, as I can't imagine I'll be able to drive
> forever, and by then there should be no bus service at all.
>
> It is nice to travel in other cities, but only New York and Stockholm have
> been frequent enough that I just don't care. My wife is in DC this
> weekend, and she reports the Metro blue line's frequency Saturdays is low
> enough that she would have walked if she knew. And I've waited 15 minutes
> for a number 1 in New York during rush hour (but I assume it was held up).
>
> Anyway, I suppose the service is not much worse in Trafford than it was
> before Lincoln Coach turned the screws to Pittsburgh Railways, at least on
> weekdays. I'd rather have a streetcar, but I'm not holding my breath.
>
>