[PRCo] Re: Shoulda, Coulda, would

[Fred Schneider]

No, Fred does not have his legislation mixed up.  The Port Authority  
of Allegheny County was created by "legislation enacted by the  
Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1956, giving it the responsibility  
of planning and developing port facilities in Allegheny County."  In  
1959 the state expanded its role to enable it to acquire privately  
owned transit facilities and operate a public mass transit system,  
which PAT did by eminent domain in 1964.
Fred was not oblivious to this.

Fred was not understood Hunt, and Pete Flayerty and your boss's role  
in getting rid of Skybus too.

Fred said in his e-mail that he was giving the reader the option of  
dreaming about a future unincumbered by PAT as if PAT never  
happened.   Railfans like to dream about what a world without reality  
would be like.   We like scapegoats.   We want our trolleys.   We  
want to blame their demise on something beyond reality.  I was saying  
if PAT was not there and but the other conditions remained the same,  
the trolleys would be gone anyway.

The county commissioners would still want to get rid of them.    
Westinghouse would still want to promote Skybus.   The steel industry  
would still collapse.   About 350,000 people would move out of  
Pittsburgh and maybe 200,000 from the older valley towns and the  
county would stagnate.   The city officials would still want the  
trolleys off the streets.  Gulf Oil would still want to sell diesel  
oil and gasoline.  Certain neighborhoods would sour.  There would  
also be urban ruinall projects.

On Jun 11, 2008, at 9:56 PM, John Swindler wrote:

>
> Fred has his legislation mixed up.  The Municipalities Authority  
> Act has been around since about 1950 or earlier.  This was the  
> legislation used to form CAMTRAN, BCTA, WCTA, Red Rose, etc.  But  
> not PAT (nor SEPTA).  PAT was formed under the Port Authority Act  
> which was passed mid-1950s.
>