[PRCo] Re: 60 // 68

[Fred Schneider]

Why am I not surprised?   If I had a dollar for every time I  
explained seasonal adjustment of labor force numbers to a newspaper  
reporter, ...

However, Jim, I am a little confused, myself.  There should be an  
upturn on 67 and 64 and 55, and 87 and 88 and especially anything  
going through Oakland between August and October because workers  
return from summer vacations, and schools reopen.   Because Pitt,  
Carnegie and Chatham College affect the routes in the 60s ( except  
number 60 itself) and 70s, I would some pretty strong seasonal changes.

However, there is something else in the equation that seems  
missing.   Where is the park traffic to Kennywood?  If the reporter  
looked at it early enough to get people returning from vacations, he  
should also get the fall off at Kennywood after Labor Day.   If he  
missed Kennywood, then he also missed the people coming back from  
vacations and just looked at 60 and 68 just before the conversion.

Perhaps, what are seeing, is that by 1958 most visitors to Kennywood  
were now using automobiles and there simply was no fall off in  
traffic on routes 60 and 68 because of the park????

Does anyone remember it well enough?   I passed the park once in July  
1958 but I was on a fantrip car and was oblivious to what was  
happening on regular cars.

f3

On Sep 10, 2007, at 9:03 PM, Jim Holland wrote:

> The local papers got the idea that riding had increased on bus  
> routes 60
> (East Homestead-Liberty) and 68 (East Homestead-McKeesport) after  
> their
> rail-to-rubber conversions on Sunday, September 28, 1958.     However,
> Pittsburgh Railways officials announced that the gain of 2000 riders,
> or  3.12%, was due to normal seasonal pickup and that riding had
> similarly increased on rail lines 64 (East Pittsburgh-Wilkinsburg) and
> 67 (Swissvale-Rankin-Braddock).     The only service changes on routes
> 60 and 68 were the additions of 3 additional morning rush hour trips.
> .
> This courtesy of Mr. Richard Bowker who sent the info to
> *_The__Headway__Recorder_*  and was transcribed recently by Dennis  
> Linsky.
> .
> The extra trips were  *_most__probably_*  added because of lower
> capacity of buses.     Strange that more evening trips wouldn't be  
> added
> as well.
> -- 
> *Jim Holland*
>
> Studying *Pittsburgh Railways Company*
>
> ....................From 1930 -- 1950
>
> *Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM)*
>
> http://www.pa-trolley.org/
>
> *N.M.R.A.*
>
> http://www.nmra.org/
>
>