[PRCo] Fwd: Pittsburgh 1948 - Part 13: Interurban lines

[Bill]

--- In LRPPro at yahoogroups.com, "Leroy W. Demery, Jr."
<chris_demery at ...> wrote:

Lyndon et al.,
Concluding this series on Pittsburgh streetcar line traffic data from
1948:

Part 13: Washington, PA, local lines.

W-1 Jefferson and Maiden
3.5 miles
2,101,000 revenue passengers

W-4 East and West Washington
2.7 miles
1,400,000 revenue passengers

W-5 North Washington
0.9 miles
319,000 revenue passengers

Washington local lines
6.7 miles system length (unduplicated).
3,820,000 revenue passengers.

Which, together with the population at the time (about 30,000),
implies about 127 annual 
rides per capita. That was definitely a different era back then.

Assuming that passengers transferred at the same rate as elsewhere on
the PRCo system: 

5.1 million "total passengers" (above figure multiplied by 1.33.)

The average travel distance per boarding was probably about 1 mile
(that per revenue 
passenger would have been somewhat higher). I don't see how it could
have been 
significantly higher - "Little Washington" is not very big.

When this system closed, with the end of the interurbans in 1953, it
must have been the 
last "small town trolley system" in the U.S.

(I was intrigued to see, on "Google Maps" satellite photos, what looks
like a significant 
amount of redevelopment in town, and genuine suburban development
northwest of 
downtown.)

Well, "that's all, folks." I hope all this will be of interest  . . .
to someone.

Parts were:
1: North Side-East (routes 1-5)
2: North Side
3: West End
4: South Side - South Hills
5: Second Avenue - East End
6: Forbes Avenue - East End
7: Fifth Avenue - East End
8: Center Street - East End
9: Penn Avenue - East End
10: "Other" lines (crosstown routes and major shuttle lines).
11: Shuttles
12: Interurbans (which I see I mis-numbered as "11")
13: Washington local lines (this one)


One last tidbit:

In the outlying mill towns, as many as 80-90 percent of the workforce
walked to work. 
(Tarr, Joel A. 1978. Transportation Innovation and Changing Spatial
Patterns in Pittsburgh, 
1850-1934. Chicago: Public Works Historical Society.)

Leroy W. Demery, Jr.

References:

Report on "Advisability of Substituting Bus Service In Whole or In
Part for the Street Car 
Service Presently Being Undertaken," for W. D. George and Thomas
Fitzgerald, Trustees, 
Pittsburgh Railways Company, Debtor, and Pitttsburgh Motor Coach
Company, Subsidiary. 
N. A. Lougee & Company, 1949.

Parkinson, Tom E. 1967. "The Street Railways of Pittsburgh,
1859-1967." Published jointly 
by Light Railway Transport League, London, and Pennsylvania Railway
Museum 
Association, Inc, Pittsburgh.

(Also: American Oil Company street map, probably picked up from a gas
station when I 
first visited Pittsburgh in 1970. Copyright date is 1970, but it shows
the Castle Shannon 
incline as operating.)


Sincere appreciation to Ed Tennyson for critiques, corrections and
reminiscences of 
Pittsburgh in 1948.


See also:

Pittsburgh Railways OnLine [Roger DuPuis]

URL: http://www.angelfire.com/ny/tramstop/index.html 



Pittsburgh Transit Routes

URL: http://hometown.aol.com/chirailfan/pitdate.html 

This is part of Bill Vandervoort's "Chicago Transit and Railfan"
website. It lists most Port 
Authority transit routes, showing which routes were once streetcar
routes, with former 
numbers and dates of conversion.




The Routes - PCC Operation

URL:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050828213648/http://www.pittsburghtransit.com/
index9.html

[This is a vestige of  Shawn Bennear`s www.pittsburghtransit.com,
which has disappeared 
from cyberspace.]




Regrettably, there are no maps of the Pittsburgh Railways system
available online.

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum booklist includes a "Pittsburgh
Railways Company Map," 
described as "Reprinted by Pennsylvania Trolley Museum - $4.00 -
Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania and vicinity. Street and interurban railway trackage
1859-1959."

I believe this is a reprint of the excellent 1959 track map (which
also shows abandoned 
track) published by the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club.
 

--- End forwarded message ---