[PRCo] Re: PAT ridership

[Fred Schneider]

The Homestead- McKeesport (old trolley 68), Lincoln (trolley 82) and  
Frankstown (88 car) are also all heavier than Library via Saw Mill  
Run but we need to recognize that each of those has something  
resembling multiple destinations even though the quality of them has  
waned over the years (Wilkinsburg and Eas's'liberty are not the same  
commercial hubs that I remember in my youth) and Homestead -  
McKeesport doesn't have all the mill traffic today, McKeesport is a  
nothing, and the new Homestead has off street free parking for  
everyone who wants to use the mall.  Furthermore, the long distance  
to McKeesport and the time involved makes it less productive or cost  
effective than Library.  Yet it's easy to see why, at least for a  
while, PT continued to run the old B&O train service.   There was a  
market, albeit ephemeral.

I would like to see a boarding and alighting study of all the routes  
in the 60s and 70s (or old 60s and 70s) to see what portions of the  
load go to Oakland and what go to other points.   Of course, knowing  
that would make PAT more prone to remove service because people don't  
go to Rankin or McKeesport or Wilkinsburg or Highland yet that may be  
where some kids get on to go to Duquesne or Pitt or CMU.


On Jan 21, 2007, at 5:13 PM, Joshua Dunfield wrote:

>
> To get the conversation into something less off-topic, here's a  
> link to
> today's P-G story on the PAT cuts:
>
>   http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07021/755607-147.stm
>
> and a table with the 10 routes with the highest (weekday) ridership:
>
>   http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070121Bus_routes.gif
>
> Except for the 51C, every bus route on that list is an East End
> route (at least; see 54C) and more than half serve Oakland.  The
> combined 71A/C/D-500 ridership exceeds all the T lines (the 52 isn't
> listed, but service "over the hill" is so minimal these days that
> it can't carry more than a few hundred a day).
>
> -j.
>