[PRCo] Trolley Firm Faces Condemnation

[Fred Schneider]

Another to proof read....   I'll start putting the word file up at the top for Ed and Matt.  The printed version is beneath it.



http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nkIqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EE8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4957%2C2138001

 

Pittsburgh Press,  August 8, 1963, page 2

 

Trolley Firm Faces Condemnation

 

Port Authority Expects No New Talks

 With Railways On Purchase Price

[An Editorial, “The Transit Plan – How Much?” Page 18]

 

   Judge Loran L. Lewis said today condemnation proceedings will be started against the Pittsburgh Railways Co., (PRC) within two months “unless there is a radical change in the company’s bargaining position.”

 

   Judge Lewis, chairman of the County Port Authority, said the decision was reached after negotiations with the railways firm collapsed last night.

 

   “I don’t think there will be any further talks,: Judge Lewis said.   “We’re still much to far apart.” 

 

   In a letter to its stockholders today, the company said negotiations earlier this year left the firm and the authority about $5,500,000 apart.

 

   Under the law, the authority has the power to take any property it feels is needed to improve public service, with the courts setting a fair price.

 

   It is used only after negotiations show the potential buyer and seller cannot reach agreement.

 

   The authority has been negotiating with 31 firms in an effort to put a unified transit system into operation by January.

 

Only Holdout

 

   The only holdout is the Pittsburgh Railways Co.

 

   C. D. Palmer, PRC president, expressed regret his company and the authority were not able to reach a compromise.

 

   “We had always hoped that we could negotiate a sales price for the company and I believe the authority had hoped so too,” Mr. Palmer said.

 

   “We have been unable to reach an agreement and the authority has indicated it intends to follow the condemnation course.   That’s it.”

 

    Neither Judge Lewis nor Mr. Palmer would reveal exactly how far apart the railways and the authority are.

 

   When talks began several months ago, the railways’ asking price was 35 million dollars.   The authority figured the firm was worth about 12 million. 

 

   This was just for its transit facilities and does not include a Chicago aerosol bomb factory and a New York burglar and fire alarm firm, both acquired by the company within the last two years.

 

   Judge Lewis said the railways had lowered its asking price, “but it was not enough to interest us.”

 

   Under condemnation proceedings, the authority will be required to put a sum in escrow in Common Please Court equal to 75 percent of what the authority considers to be a fair price for the railways.

 

   Any such fund, Jude Lewis said, would have to await signatures of the County Commissioners on a contract guaranteeing the bonds for the new transit system.

 

   The judge said completion of such financial arrangements and guarantees should take “about two months.”

 

   Yesterday Commissioners William D. McClelland and John E. McGrady indicated they would go along with guaranteeing the bonds despite authority figures which showed that the deficit for the first year of operation may be $175,000 more than originally estimated.

 

   The authority now calculates that the first-year deficit will be about $535,905.

 

   It attributes the increase to a rapid loss in passengers by the PRC.   Last year alone the railways lost almost seven million passengers.  

 

   There has been no change in the basic purchase cost of the entire system – 39 million dollars.

 

   A New York consulting firm, Coverdale & Colpitts, earlier estimated the deficit may run as high as $1,811,535 for the first year.