[PRCo] Interurban Abandonmentsd

[Fred Schneider]

There was one other competitive disadvantage which Ed Tennyson has  
mentioned on several occasions.   Only he can vouch for its  
authenticity.   I cannot.

He claimed that the federal 10% transportation tax applied to  
Pittsburgh Railways interurban fares over a certain value, which I  
know to be true, but did not apply to Blue Ridge bus fares.   This  
made the bus fares inherently more economical than the trolley  
fares.   And, as Herb already pointed out, with no traffic on route  
19 in those days, the bus time from Washington to Pittsburgh was a  
whole lot faster than the trolley.

I thought the federal transportation tax also applied to bus fares  
but I could be wrong ... I remember the fare, for example, from  
Parkersburg WV to Marietta OH by Greyhound in the middle 1950s was 44  
cents which I thought was 40 cents plus the 4 cents tax.

The only time I rode the interurbans was in March 1953 and I paid for  
it with two books of zone tickets which I bought at the cashiers  
office at 121 Seventh Street.   I have no detailed recollection what  
I paid.   I think it was $2.40 a book.   But I don't know if any tax  
was included.

I do remember a story from Chick Siebert of the time he rode West  
Penn Railways on state business.   Chick had to go from Harrisburg to  
Uniontown and, being the consumate railfan that he was, he would not  
think of driving.   Armed with travel orders and tax waivers he set  
out from Harrisburg.   He would have bought his Pennsylvania Railroad  
tickets with state transportation orders.   He took the PRR to  
Greensburg.   And there he boarded the West Penn car to Uniontown.    
He explained to me that he handed the motorman a state waiver telling  
them not to collect the transportation tax and he dropped the rest of  
the fare in the fare box.   This tale supports the fact that the  
surviving few interurbans in this country did have to collect the 10%  
wartime transportation tax.

By blind carbon I'm allowing Ed and Chick to comment.   However, you  
cannot post to the list unless you are members.   Forward comments  
back to me and I'll put it on the list.