[PRCo] Re: Railway Patronage

[Fred Schneider]

Northern New Jersey has done it for years with resident decals on  
cars.   You don't have one?  Sorry, don't even think of parking near  
any of the Lackawanna stations out near Morristown.   They were doing  
that back when I wrote the E-L commuter article for Trains magazine  
in 1971.

On the other hand, as much as travellers like myself become  
exasperated by things like outrageous (reads any) hotel taxes,  the  
locals certainly appreciate paying lower tax rates .... that is if  
they even have it figured out.   How do we tie this to Pittsburgh ...  
hmmmm.... well, I always stay at hotels in Washington County, never  
in Allegheny County, because the hotel tax up north is simply  
outrageous.

On May 1, 2006, at 8:41 AM, John Swindler wrote:

>
> The long routes provide some real competition for high gas prices.   
> Bet the
> passenger mile figure is also up.  People can park in Sandy and  
> save some
> real bucks.
>
> My concern is that arrogant upper management will use this as  
> opportunity to
> again alienate the public/taxpayers.  We have already seen this in
> Washington where metrorail has told occasional riders to go take a  
> hike.  We
> are only in business to serve the local residents.  (it costs local
> residents $3 per day to park at Metrorail stations on weekdays.   
> Visitors
> are charged $8.  I also heard last week that Boston is in process of
> distroying occasional ridership with the "Charlie" card, but I haven't
> checked the process)
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Railway Patronage
>> Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 01:22:44 -0400
>>
>> I just looked at a piece from the Salt Lake City newspaper -- TRAX
>> patronage, which was running around 40,000 passengers a day is now up
>> to 57,500 on a typical weekday.   Absolutely astounding for a one a
>> half line system.   Except for the fact that it is so long and
>> therefore that the passenger miles are low, it would be one of the
>> best success stories in the nation.    Now if they were charging zone
>> fares ... WOW would it be a winner.   I'll have to take a new look at
>> it on the way back from Vancouver this summer.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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