[PRCo] New buses for Community Transit in PAT colors

[Fred Schneider]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wcEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ck8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1638%2C4138279
 

Pittsburgh Press, August 28, 1963, page 1

 

Lines ‘Authorize’ New Bus Preview

 

By RALPH BREM

 

   Commuters here will get a good look within the next month at what’s coming down the road for them.

    The clue is a new 51-seat bus that showed up on the Community Transit Service, Inc. Bridgeville and Tarentum lines this week.    It was on the Tarentum run yesterday, then made an excursion trip to Forbes Field last night and is running between Bridgeville and downtown today.   Tomorrow it will be sown at the County Fair.

    It’s the first of its type to carry the new County Port Authority’s colors and also the forerunner of some 17 others that will go into service here on various routes next month.

    Which is a pretty good trick since the authority won’t be officially in business until January 1

   It’s part of a deal worked out between Harley Swift, executive director of the Authority, and some of the bus company owners.

   Already decided is the fact the authority will buy out some 30 transit firms for 39 million dollars, probably condemning the Pittsburgh Railways Co. to get control of its holdings.

   However, the time between the decision and the actual takeover is long; some of the companies involved have found a need to replace worn out buses.  Instead of buying whatever model struck their fancies, they talked to Mr. Swift.   He suggested they all buy the same type that the authority plans to buy later to beef up its service.   The county plans to put about 150 new buses in service in the first year of co-ordinated operation.   So far 17 new buses have been ordered by Bigi Bus Lines, Horrell Transportation Co., Oriole Motor Coach Lines, Deere Brothers Bus Lines and Community Transit.

 Delivery is expected to start Sept. 13 and continue into October.  Cost runs about $27,000 a piece.   Most of them will sport the authority’s new colors aluminum (silve) sides split by a green strip with a gray roof. 

   Mr. Swift said these colors were picked for two reasons – brightness, so that the bus is highly visible on the road, and maintenance.   “These colors are easy to keep clean and in case of an accident we will be able to cut the bad section out and replace it and then paint only the panel because this aluminum metallic paint blends within 24 hours,” Mr. Swift said.

 [Transcriber’s note:   Harley Swift came from Harrisburg Railways.   The colors chosen were the Harrisburg colors.   They were not the colors that were used by PAT in 1964 and by then Swift had been replaced by John Dameron.]