[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh - think tank blasts possible new transit taxes

[John Swindler]

Hi Fred

Make that a 100 million decline in Philly transit ridership 1975 to 2005, 
which is what I thought it was.  For 1975, I didn't notice that PAT was at 
top of the large urbanized area listing.

I have to go to 1975/76 to compare person trips (originating passengers) 
against 2002/03.

PAT has gone from 98,823,600 to 63,778,441

SEPTA-City transit:  237,870,000 to 172,596,879

SEPTA Red Arrow:  18,776,000 to 11,152,227

SEPTA Regional Rail:  29,756,900 to 28,058,238

(vindicates Ed Tennyson's claim that rail transit tends to hold ridership)

Some additional:

Erie from 5,296,299 to 2,264,908

Allentown from 4,055,698 to 4,114,637  (yes, has gone up)

Willliamsport from 801,569 to 1,028,913 (also gone up from very low base)

Wilkes Barre from 4,853,024 to 1,360,843

Reading from 3,842,969 to 2,394,704

Lancaster from 1,413,715 to 1,762,851 (gone up from end of Conestoga days)

Suspect a lot of the above represents a loss of jobs within cities.  
Regional rail avoids traffic congestion.  That's also why the South Hills 
rail lines have hovered around 25,000 per day.  And Jim Holland probably 
sees the same thing with the MUNI metro light rail lines.

John




>From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh - think tank blasts possible new transit 
>taxes
>Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:17:58 -0400
>
>John,
>
>When did the SEPTA numbers first include suburban rail?   Or is this
>CTD, Frontier and RAD only?
>
>What has happened to suburban rail riders?
>
>I know that PATCO is way down simply because Philadelphia jobs are
>way down.  Jobs in the Metropolitan Area (8 counties) are up about
>20,000 in the last 20 years but Philadelphia City is probably still
>down.   If it continues to drop, then suburban rail as well as PATCO
>will continue to decline.
>
>fws
>
>
>On Sep 10, 2007, at 9:14 AM, John Swindler wrote:
>
> > PAT has declined from around 120 million during early 1970s to
> > somewhere
> > around 70 million total riders today.  SEPTA has lost about 200
> > million
> > annual riders past couple decades.  Public transit just isn't as
> > important
> > anymore.  The automobile is just too convenient and provides too much
> > independence.  But the highway systems (roadways and parking) can not
> > support unlimited auto travel.  At the extreme, that is why transit
> > does so
> > well in New York City.  It should also do well in Pittsburgh with
> > the rivers
> > and hills limiting roadway space.  That it does not .....  well,
> > let's not
> > go there.
>
>

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