[PRCo] West Penn Railways Fare Zones

[Fred Schneider]

My wife thinks Ed Lybarger is away (she and his wife Janis are closer  
than Ed and I).  Some point he will catch up to this and no doubt add  
his comments.

West Penn also used fare zones on Division B (Coke Region) in much  
the same manner that Pittsburgh Railways did on Washington and  
Charleroi but their zones were not as arbitrary.   West Penn zones  
often overlapped each other so that a ride from zone A to just  
slightly into zone B really was only a one zone ride.   Ed has a lot  
of information on them manipulating fare zones in order to get more  
money without actually increasing fares.   Therefore the zone charts  
in 1920 may not be identical to those in 1930 or 1940 or 1952.    
During the summer months, i.e. the park season, West Penn was also  
know to abolish certain zones to increase attendance at company-owned  
amusement parks.  In this instance I'm talking about fare zones  
between Uniontown and Shady Grove Park.

I have no idea what West Penn did in the way of minimum fares ...  
seems to me it was one zone and not a minimum of two.

I've never seen a zone chart outside of the Coke Region and I would  
be curious to know whether or not West Penn charged the same fare as  
Pittsburgh Railways when they both ran cars over West Penn tracks  
between McKeesport and Duquesne.   I have a hunch that whatever West  
Penn charged in McKeesport might well have been influenced by  
Pittsburgh Railways, but that was on the fare chart with Allegheny  
Valley and I don't have one.