[PRCo] Fares in Pittsburgh - 2

[Fred Schneider]

One addition or two or three additions--

The transfer cutters on Pittsburgh streetcars had three positions and  
I explained only two Jerry:  the place for the transfer, and the  
place for the special transfer.

If you got on a car within the downtown far zone (which I did  
explain), you were not given a regular transfer but instead the third  
type ... a THROAT transfer which was good to anywhere within the city  
except for possible multiple zone rides.   Therefore, if you were to  
get on an inbound 37 SHANNON car in front of the P&LE Station and you  
asked for a transfer, the transfer you received would be a THROAT  
transfer which would entitle you to a ride anywhere.  You could use  
it, for example, to West View Park or East Liberty or whatever.

I did not explain that there were established transfer points in  
order to prevent you from back tracking.  If I wanted to go from my  
grandmother's home off of Perrysville Avenue to Harry Bartley's  
residence off the 13 Emsworth car down in Ben Avon, I could transfer  
outbound either at Perrysville and North or I could use the transfer  
twice and change to a 10/15 car at Keating Carhouse and then to the  
13 car in Bellevue.  But inbound I could only change at Perrysville  
and North because the company deduced that I could go right back  
where I started from if I changed twice and went through West View.   
Go figure.

There were always rules too that you could get a transfer only when  
you paid the fare ... probably not important that the motorman saw  
that you paid the fare because how else would you be there .... but  
perhaps more important in that it prevent you from getting one  
transfer, passing it through the window to a friend out on the street  
so he/she could get a free ride, and then going back and getting  
another for yourself.

There could be books written on this subject and I suspect that if I  
copied every article in the trade journals on the subject of fares, I  
would have a book.

fws