[PRCo] Re: 88 Transit and Suburban

[John Swindler]

To bring things up to date on the Washington side, GG&C Bus lines, named after three school teachers that got into the school bus service, took over/bought/assumed (not sure how it happened) the former service of Washington City Lines, which in a prior reincarnation were the Washington local lines.  

 

GG&C also had a local route Canonsburg to Washington in 1970s.  This may have been how they got started in the fixed route business.  It evolved into a Washington-Pittsburgh service which was previously provided by Suburban, previously Blue Ridge, and even earlier the Washington interurban.  This genealogy can get complicated very quickly.

 

GG&C Bus Lines was sold to John Lenzner several years ago.  Last week I met Dave Good (son of one of the GG&C founders) and John Lenzner in Hershey.  John mentioned that he gets Trolley Fare every couple months, and Dave was at PTM last year with one of the GG&C buses for the dedication of 4398.

 

It's a small world.

 

Cheers

John

 

 


 
> From: trams2 at comcast.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: 88 Transit and Suburban
> Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:28:01 -0400
> 
> Blue Ridge Lines competed with PRCo on both interurbans. PRCo competed with
> itself on Charleroi with a bus route that didn't make it into the
> Depression. Greyhound acquired Blue Ridge in 1955, then sold the
> Washington-Wheeling service about 1959 to Suburban Lines, based in
> Washington. The Charleroi service was sold to 88 Transit Lines at about the
> same time. Both companies were owned by the drivers, which worked well for
> a while and then became a problem as rider numbers dropped and drivers
> retired but still wanted dividends. Finally Suburban was sold to Shortway
> out of Detroit, who bankrupt it pretty quickly. 88 Transit is still around,
> and contracts to Mid-Mon Valley Transit Authority.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Phillip
> Clark Campbell
> Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 2:20 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] 88 Transit and Suburban
> 
> 
> > ----- Original Message ----
> 
> > From: Edward H. Lybarger <trams2 at comcast.net>
> > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 7:01:27 AM
> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: More photos
> > 
> > 88 Transit and Suburban were not in business in the early '50s. They 
> > were a late '50s result of Greyhound's decision to get out of the 
> > local service business that they had acquired in 1955 through the 
> > purchase of Blue Ridge from Potomac Edison.
> > 
> This is more than I ever wanted to know about coaches but here you have
> piqued my interest, to a limited degree. Who competed with Charleroi and
> Washington service if any? Did 88 eventually operate these routes? I'm
> sorry; while I recognize the name 'Suburban' I do not remember anything
> about them. Was Suburban the competitor for Charleroi and Washington?
> 
> 
> Phil
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™ Hotmail®:…more than just e-mail.
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_more_042009

-- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
-- Type: image/pjpeg
-- Size: 2187k (2240510 bytes)
-- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/P08-01.JPG