[PRCo] Fares in Pittsburgh

[Fred Schneider]

In response to Jerry:

Good question and I'm only going to start an answer that I'm sure can  
unravel over days because of different memories of different periods  
of time.

Like many operators in many large cities, Pittsburgh Railways didn't  
want to give away the farm.   Therefore you could not get on a car in  
Washington, Pa. and ride all the way to Sewickley on a single fare.

The city routes were divided into sectors.... probably north, west,  
south and east.   You could get on a car in the west end and pay a  
fare, obtain a free transfer and ride on that transfer to any point  
in the west end or any point in the downtown zone.  If I remember  
correctly, the downtown zone was bounded by Carson St. on the south,  
North Avenue on the north, and Damf-I-Remember Street on the east.    
If, however, you wanted to go beyond the downtown zone, PRC sold  
Special transfers and Round-Trip Special Transfers, which allowed  
rides from one city sector to the full extent of another city  
sector.   A "Special" for example, would allow a ride from East  
Liberty to Carnegie.  To give relative expense, I think when the base  
fare was 17 cents, the one-way special was 25 cents.

There may have been extra zones to Glassport, McKeesport, Sewickley  
etc. but I cannot remember.  I never could remember those details.   
And there were times when motormen would be nice to railfans and  
simply would forget the extras.

The interurban fares were by zones.   The Zone numbers were painted  
on Washington Division waiting sheds (Meadow Lands was 12, Cheesman  
was 8, Cremona was in zone 4 and of, of course, downtown Pittsburgh  
was in zone 1.  (Charleroi sheds were not identified in any picture I  
have.)   I bought two books of zone tickets in 1953 and they were  
sufficient for a round trip on both divisions ... there might have  
been 40 tickets in a book.  And I think I might have paid $2.40 per  
book.  (I've sure EHL has something to correct my memory.)   After  
1952 you could pay between Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon with zone  
fares, zone tickets, tokens (checks in Pittsburgh parlance), local  
fares.   The zone fares were registered on Ohmer receipt printers ...  
the motorman set the printer for the zone in which you boarded and  
for the zone where you stated you wanted off, you paid the fare and  
took the receipt.  When you got off, you handed in the receipt to  
prove you paid the fare.   At the end of his day, he turned in a  
register tape and his bag of money.   The company counted it.   One  
motorman explained that they always forgot to register a few fares  
each day so that they would always wind up with more money than the  
tape showed and never be questioned about shortages.

Washington Division local lines had their own fare structure and even  
their own tokens.

There was a period in the 1950s when Pittsburgh Railways had a weekly  
permit cards to encourage riding ... I think it might have been done  
after the 1954 strike.  If you paid for the permit, the fare was  
reduced on each trip.

The Railways had a Sunday Pass for many years.  I rode on them as  
early as 1953.   My father, who was always noted for baiting his kids  
to see what they were doing, left a 1930 Sunday Pass in a sex manual  
for me to find.   I found it.  Never told him.  He never told me  
either.    PAT went to a weekend pass.  The whole object was to  
stimulate riding when people might otherwise not ride ... same scheme  
as  building amusement parks.

That ought to be enough to start things moving.

fws