[PRCo] Re: Interurban Abandonmentsd

[Shirley Tennyson]

    Yes, Fred is approximately correct.
 The tax was 15 percent in my time in Pittsburgh but dropped to 10%
several years after World War iI when 15 % was imposd to discourage
travel,
  Blue Ridge Bus (H&F Ry) one-way fares  were also subject to the tax
but commuter tickets were exempt.  Blue Ridge sold Ten-Ride ticket books
without tax. All fares 35 cents and under were  exempt.
   In 1947. the Washington PA interurban scheduled two cars per trip at
4;30 and 5pm with the second car running advance section as far as
Cannonsburg where it turned back to South Hills Juction car barn
There were about 240 passengers per peak hour. I rode the Charleroi line
at that time but saw the Washington line as I waited,. The fare to
Canonsburg was 35 cents.  Pittsburgh Inteurbans had 3.5 cent script
tickets in books each ticket good for one zone averaging 2.5 miles. 
    The  ever knowing US Government ruled that interurban script books
were taxable but Blue Ridge Ten-Trip tickets were not,    
   The 1948  fare increase of 20 % on Pittsburgh Railways put Canonsburg
in the taxable zone, Within weeks ridership plummeted to obviate the
tripper cars double heading the peak trips, notwithstanding the
introduction of new PCC cars to replace the old yellow  low floor city
cars pressed into interurban service, 
   In 1949. I went to Milwaukee but in the fall I met Trustee and
General Manager Tom Fitzgerald on a Charleroi car as I was starting for
a trip to Milwaukee.I asked him why he allowed that to happen.  He said
he needed the 20 % fare increase in the worst way as they had  no
increase for 25 years as wages more than doubled. He was afraid that any
exception for the interurbans would cause the City to further hold up
the fare increase even more than they tried to do as it was,  The City
wanted the interurbans abandoned in the worst way although why is hard
to fathom  They argued that interurban losses forced jhigher fares in
the city but it was not enough to matter if anything. Inter urbans had
much lower cost per mile as motormen made more miles per hour,     
  I suspect a bigger problem was the lower management overlooked the
problem and did not want to admit that their mistake mattered, It would
also be  difficult for motormen to sell Ten-Trip Tickets to so many
different zones, Blue Ridge had intercity bus stations to sell tickets
and Greyhound station sold  interurban tickets but very few bought them
there.   
    I put in a new fare structuire in Milwaukee in Decmeber 1949. I made
sure we had Ten-Trip Tickets with no tax,  Our one-way fare to Waukesha
was 45 cents and by then at 10% 4 cents tax  = 49 cents . I told our
motormen to use the penny change as a count for how many taxable fares
they collected,.  We had no mechanical counters nor sales records to
count passengers per trip. Motormen reported total trip counts but they
were not accurate nor disaggregated, 
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