[PRCo] Re: FW: Nice PA Trolley Museum article in today's Post-Gazette

[Schneider Fred]

I guess my only two comments are that there more than 99 routes  
because the shuttle lines were not initially numbered until there  
were enough abandonments to allow them to be given numbers.

My other comment is that the fares prior to 1964 theoretically were  
sufficient to permit the private companies to pay off the invested  
capital (although the stock and bond holders often took a blood bath  
in various bankruptcies) and to pay taxes to support government  
operations.   We have pictures of those earliest horse car drivers  
with license badges on their lapels, just one form of taxation.    
Another was the insidious 50 cent tax on every line pole (why do you  
think they attached span wires to buildings?).  That would be about  
$700 to $1,000 a block annually in today's money.

And today we have no real idea how much the fare is because so much  
of it is hidden in taxes and lottery proceeds, but somewhere around  
$8 to $12 per passenger per trip is close and not the $2 the  
journalist suggests.   The other flaw is that, because we never pay  
off Federal government loans, the original cost of a subway or a bus  
or a light rail car just stays there added to the cost of the next  
order ... we simply issue new federal bonds and pay the interest year  
after year, century after century, but we do not necessarily  
attribute it to transit.   We really don't know where it went.

Furd

On Aug 2, 2009, at 11:35 AM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> Thought I'd share Scott Becker's email about the P-G article.  I  
> would add
> that the gentleman from the P-G, and the photograper as well, were
> first-class.  The reporter was intelligent, asked good questions and
> recorded the answers correctly.  His is the transit beat and he  
> acknowledged
> that he had to understand it in order to cover it.  He was  
> enthusiastic
> about his job.
>
> I wish more in the media had his sense of responsibility and ethics.
>
> Ed
>   _____
>
> From: Scott Becker [mailto:sbecker at pa-trolley.org]
> Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2009 10:17 AM
>
> Subject: Nice PA Trolley Museum article in today's Post-Gazette
>
>
>
> There was a nice article in today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette about  
> the 150th
> Anniversary of Pittsburgh Transit event we are having this Thursday- 
> Sunday.
> Please go to:
>
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09214/987830-147.stm
>
>
>
> The cake cutting ceremony will be at approx 12:30pm on Thursday  
> August 6th
> at the Horse Car in the Trolley Display Building and you are all  
> invited!
> If attending, there will be a streetcar leaving Richfol at 12:15pm.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Scott
>
>
>
>