[PRCo] Re: Shoulda, Coulda, would

[Fred Schneider]

Interesting question.   Remember that the county politics at the time  
consisted of two commissioners who were in bed with Westinghouse  
Electric Company over Skybus and one (Dr. Hunt) who was opposed to  
it.   Westinghouse was the hometown industry.   Industries buy  
politicians.   Politicians put the people they want on the transit  
authorities.  Therefore, I do see any question that the Port  
Authority structure would have been any different than you saw it  
when it was created in 1964.

Now let's assume that Pittsburgh Railways had lasted another ten  
years ... hardly likely because the state had passed legislation  
allowing transit authorities and Johnstown Traction Company was the  
last private operator and it went public about 1978.   But let's  
dream.   In our dream anything is possible.   In the next ten years  
the owner of the railways would have been continually hounded by the  
city to do what the city wanted.

The West End was already gone because PRC didn't want to spend any  
money fighting the state highway department to keep the money loosing  
West End lines in operation.  Read the 1948 Louge Report, Jerry.   At  
that time the West End lines lost $365,000 a year (that's about $4  
million in today's money).

The Millvale Route was the only one that carried that Division and  
the State was crowding them out because of proposed construction of  
the Allegheny Valley Expressway. Of course it took 30 years after  
abandonment for the expressway to be finally built and my uncle was  
wearing a T-shirt that said "I lived long enough to drive the  
Alegheny Valley Expressway."  Troy Hill, Etna and Spring Garden only  
had a very marginal profit in 1948 and probably didn't earn anything  
by 1950.

The Manchester routes were quite profitable ... with Western Avenue  
alone bringing home almost half the bacon for the entire division.    
However,  that area was rather depressed and remember the city wanted  
to redevelop Manchester.  While the bus garage was still there when  
PAT took over and it later became PAT's headquarter's site, all of  
the Manchester car lines except for 6 and 13 were already gone under  
Pittsburgh Railways before PAT was formed.   So we know what would  
have happened there.

What about the Keating routes?   Perrysville Avenue was a strong  
route.   In 1958 it banked about $40,000 profit.   That was about $5  
million in today's money.  But the other Keating routes lost $198,000  
in 1948.   Kind of hard to keep one route, isn't it Jerry, when the  
city is redeveloping the lower north side and eliminating Federal  
Street from North Avenue down to Ohio Street.   PRC would have had to  
lay new tracks around the west side of the Allegheny Commons.   Would  
the revenue have held up enough to justify it?   Let me start off by  
saying that I am not a racist but I've been told that you do not  
Perry Hilltop is not the worst neighborhood in Pittsburgh today but  
you do not drive through it with your doors unlocked.  My  
grandmother's old home off Perrysville Avenue is owned by a black  
family and it look better now than it has in many years.   But the  
question remains, has ridership (or ridership as a rail line) have  
held up enough to justify rebuilding the tracks around Allegheny  
Commons.

The Glenwood routes were not totally gone under Pittsburgh Railways.   
However, routes 56, 57, 58 were scheduled to go under Pittsburgh  
Railways and the project was concluded by PAT.   Why?  Because of the  
new Glenwood Bridge.   So it would not of mattered who was sitting  
behind the desk, they would have been gone.

Tunnel Car House:  The money loosing routes were Castle Shannon,  
Pittsburgh-Mount Lebanon-Castle Shannon, Brookline and Beltzhoover.   
Interesting, is it not, that most of these form the nucleus of what  
runs today.  In 1948, they lost over a quarter of a million  
dollars!   Why?  Long distances and limited revenue.   The allocation  
formulae might also be suspect because it might have been allocated  
car mile and not by car hour.  But it does show that under politics  
we have chosen to keep a high speed alternate to highways even though  
the allocation method used in 1948 showed money was being lost  
providing a service.

Carrick Car House:  This is an anomaly.  Route 47 Carrick via Tunnel  
showed a profit of $70,000 while 53 Carrick via S. 18th showed a loss  
of $19,000.   Why, because the rush hour business and the full cars  
were on route 47.   Taken collectively, Carrick made money ... about  
$50,000.  It was on par with Perrysville.   If we want to dream, it  
might have been a keeper.   But then if there had been no Port  
Authority, then Brentwood Motor Coach might have more aggressively  
fought to take away the business.

Craft Avenue, Bunker Hill, Homewood, Plummer Street and Herron Hill  
Car Houses:  Now this is where the company made it's money.  These  
routes offset the losses everywhere else.  Only routes 60, 62, 66 and  
68 lost money.   Everything else raked in the coins.  These five  
divisions raked in more than $1.5 million dollars profit (that's  
about $18 million today).   The heaviest or most profitable routes  
were 85 Bedford ($361,000 profit ... shortest route with incredible  
population density), 88 Frankstown ($339,000 profit), 82 Lincoln  
($263,000 profit), 75 Wilkinsburg ($150,000),  50 Carson St.  
($136,000), 87 Admore ($130,000).  Note the common thread here,  
Jerry, all of these routes have closely spaced row houses ...  
tenements ... block deep on either side of the tracks.   We're  
talking the most densely populated part of the city.    While we do  
know where the passengers went, the combined total for the 60s and  
70s except for 60 and 62 was slightly over 50 million fares a year  
which would be about 70,000 individual riders or 150,000 fares a day  
on the routes that went through Oakland.   That suggests that if you  
wanted to keep anything, the place to do it might have been (and  
still might be) the spine line into Oakland.

However, well meaning politicians in the 1970s converted East Liberty  
from a vibrant commercial center to a place where no one goes by  
forcing motorists to drive around the core of that part of  
Pittsburgh.   Homewood, Brushtown, Point Breeze and Wilkinsburg,  
which were once served by routes 64, 65, 66, 75, 76, 87, 88 are what  
I would consider non-destinations today.  Wilkinsburg Borough was  
forced into bankruptcy, I believe, when they could not pay their  
power bill for street lighting.  So would those routes or 71 and 73  
have lasted beyond the late 1960s as rail lines?   I doubt it.  They  
would have lasted until the very first paving project or bridge renewal.

I'm not sure that politics would have changed it too much Jerry.

One of the key points was that steel turned down in 1982 and dragged  
everything with it.   On one Friday alone, U. S. Steel handed out  
20,000 pink slips in Allegheny County.   The wages within U. S.  
Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Jones and Laughlin, and Wheeling - Pittsburgh  
Steel were sufficiently high that if you fire one steel worker, some  
one, somewhere else in the nation is also going to loose a job  
because of what that steel worker does not buy.  Of course, if they  
were able to go on pension, that rule doesn't hold true.  U. S. Steel  
was the largest employer in Allegheny County at one time and it is  
still in the top ten ... but there are a who lot of hospitals that  
are larger today.   When steel went down, it also dragged a lot of  
ancillary suppliers with it like Mesta Mlachine Co.   In addition,  
all bars or tap rooms outside the mill gates went out of business    
Eighth Street in Homestead began to look like a ghost town.   So did  
5th St. in McKeesport.  So did downtown McKees Rocks.  Pittsburgh  
lost about half it's population, down to under 350,000 people today.   
The old towns around it also lost volumes: McKeesport, Duquesne,  
Homestead, Braddock, Rankin, North Braddock, Wilmerding, Wilkinsburg,  
etc., etc., etc.

With that as a backdrop, Jerry, I doubt that any politician was going  
to do any more with PAT in the 1980s and 1990s than a custodial  
role.  If the Federal government is going to give you free money,  
that's one thing.  But they have been having enough trouble just  
finding money to run what they have (and as some of you have noticed,  
they are still trying to run what they had in 1960 even though half  
the people are no longer there to ride it).

I would like to be able to come back in 100 years and see how America  
has changed.

Have we awakened?

Are we still a democracy?

How many people are riding horses?

Is W's great great granddaughter President and lying to us that there  
is still oil?






On Jun 11, 2008, at 4:39 PM, Jerry MATT Matsick wrote:

> If in fact there were people with a mind for Rail Transit on the  
> initial PAT board of directors like some
> of you good men, what would the PAT PRCo be like today as far as  
> street car lines, what would or
> should have been kept, a streetcar line to Oakland, Wilkensburg,  
> North Hills or to the West End?    With the gas costs so high  
> today, would in fact modern street cars have been less expensive to  
> operate, just was
> wondering what should, coulda or would have happened if the right  
> people were in charge.
> Your comments are appreciated.
> --
> From the RIVER CITY by the Sea!
> Jerry "Matt" Matsick
> J A C K S O N V I L L E, Florida !
>