[PRCo] Re: Traffic

[Fred Schneider]

A lot of cities were confronted with this problem ... not unusual in  
Charleroi or Trafford.    Here in Lancaster they made King, Orange,  
Duke and Queen Streets one-way in 1930.   The traction company tried  
to accommodate the change but initially about 70 streetcars an hour  
had to buck traffic in the first block of East King Street to get  
into Penn Square ... that was the eastbound Lincoln Highway (US  
30).   By 1932 they had abandoned the New Holland / Terre Hill  
service and by 1935 the line down the Lincoln Highway to Leaman  
Place / Gap / Coatesville was gone / and by 1938 Lititz cars no  
longer bucked traffic but each of these changes only removed one or  
two cars an hour.   The city routes had up to 10 trips an hour.     
The issue really didn't end until February 1947 and by then, with  
most war traffic on the rise, it was really a calamity to have  
trolleys coming the wrong way down the middle of a one-way street in  
the oldest named paved highway in the country.


On Dec 17, 2006, at 5:23 PM, Jim Holland wrote:

> Nice Write Up, Herb!!
>
> Charleroi also had to deal with running against One Way Traffic for a
> considerable distance northbound in some of the towns in latter years.
>
> Trafford had stretches of single track on one way streets.
>
> Anywhere else on PRCo where this happened?
>
>
>
> hrbran99 at adelphia.net wrote:
> .
>
>> One of the main reasons PRCo wanted out of Washington County was the
>> high (and getting higher by the year) taxation rate applied to PRCo
>> property and operations. Also, competition from unregulated private
>> bus operations was draining a lot of revenue in those 'traffic free'
>> days. The bus could make it from Washington County to Pittsburgh in
>> less time than the trolley took. The bus just rolled along the auto
>> free/traffic signal free roads of that day at a higher average speed
>> than the streetcar. The PRCo system was plagued with miles of
>> single-track operation which caused delays. Also just the general way
>> a streetcar riding on rails had to be operated in order to be safe  
>> ate
>> up precious minutes that the bus operations did not (or would not)
>> have to put up with. Had there been as many registered automobiles
>> then, as now, the story would be quite different, I am sure.     Just
>> think what two double-track light rail lines (Washington to Pgh and
>> Charleroi to Pgh) could do for traffic congestion today!
>>
>> About West Library Loop. For years that loop was used to turn
>> Fairground cars.  I would like to know what year the County Fair
>> started at South Park and what year the W. Library Loop was  
>> constructed.
>>
>> Also, when I operated those lines in the 70's/80's most passengers
>> were off the car by the time it arrived at West Library. Library Loop
>> (Simmons) had a very small parking area in those days. Had PATransit
>> built a first-class transit center at Library (Simmons) with  
>> plenty of
>> paved/lighted/secure parking and a decent waiting area with plenty of
>> passenger ammenities I feel sure that the ridership on route 35 would
>> have been substantialy higher. The mindset of the early/mid 70s was
>> that "Skybus" was the future and the Library line would be
>> discontinued and replaced with shuttle buses feeding into Skybus.
>> Again, my main complaint about government funded public transit in  
>> the
>> USA.........they always want to jump on whatever Rube Goldberg
>> invention is being touted (and funded) and do not want to see 20  
>> or 30
>> or more years down the proverbial road.
>
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