[PRCo] Cleveland Tidbits

Sun Dec 15 19:25:36 EST 2013

You prompted me to look, Herb, to see if GCRTS still has owl service and I was astonished to see that it does.   I only checked two major routes … St. Clair and Superior but found hourly service including weekends.  Amazing.   

Makes me wonder how many cities still have owl service.

To take this back to the list, I remember my dad telling me that Pittsburgh Railways once had hourly service on all the major car lines with everything meeting downtown all night long on the hour so you could make transfers.   He used it every night to get back to Oakland from his girl friend on the north side until the girl's mom decided she wasn't going to get rid of this guy and decided to take him in as a boarder … if you can't get rid of the boy friend you might as well make some money on the deal.   (That great lady later became my grandma and his mother-in-law.)   Seems to me that all the major Pittsburgh car lines like the 8, 82, 88, 76, 71, 73 … I picking numbers that make sense without looking … had owl service through the 1950s and then PRC simply gave up.

Makes me wonder how many cities still have all night transit service outside of New York, Cleveland, Chicago.   And how many outside of New York have all-night rail service.   

I understand your feelings about working on New Years Eve, Herb.   I have a friend who used to manage Deutschebahn's southern Bavaria region and I felt sorry for him during Oktoberfest.   Imagine having a job making sure your help gets the puke scrubbed out of all the commuter rolling stock so it can be used in the rush hour the next morning and that no one gets hurt by intoxicated riders.   Still, they are better on transit than killing people driving cars  (CDC statistics -- 2010 data -- showed 48% of all highway deaths were caused by alcohol and drugs).   But with statistics like that, if I made my living driving bus, I think I would want to have the flu on Dec. 31st.      

On Dec 15, 2013, at 6:12 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> Three interesting items are in the current issue of Cleveland RTA e-news.
> 
> The first deals with New Years Eve. It seems they have decided to run all
> light and heavy rails lines ALL NIGHT on December 31/January 1 for a big
> downtown New Years Eve party. I'm glad I'm here and not there.
> 
> Second, is the rollout of the first of 40 rebuilt heavy rail cars for the
> Red Line.
> 
> 
> Third, the 100th anniversary of light rail rapid service is this month. The
> first section of what was to become Shaker Height Rapid Transit and RTA
> Green & Blue lines began December 17, 1913.
> 
>> From the news letter: (Be advised three photos accompanied these news
> articles. They may or may not come through the Server For The List.)
> Rapids run all night on New Year's Eve, serve major party downtown Ride
> RTA to *Cleveland Rocks*, community celebration on Public Square with Drew
> Carey
> 
> Comedian Drew Carey returns to his native Cleveland on Dec. 31, to
> host *Cleveland
> Rocks*, a New Year's Eve party on Public
> Square<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohiohomecoming.com>.
> To better serve that party, and hundreds of other parties planned for that
> night, RTA will operate the Red, Blue and Green Rapid lines all night. That
> means there will be continuous rail service from the morning of Dec.
> 31through the evening of Jan.
> 1. Happy New Year!
> 
> [image: Cleveland rocks, and on New Year's Eve, RTA will roll all night
> long. Let us be your designated
> driver!]<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohiohomecoming.com>
>   Extreme makeover: First renovated Red Line rail car goes into service Entire
> fleet of 40 cars will be done within two years, preview impresses many
> customers
> 
> RTA unveiled its first renovated Red Line
> car<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fnews%2Fdec-10-11-rta-unveils-new-red-line-cars>on
> Dec. 10 at Tower City. Customers who saw the display were impressed
> and
> delighted. The first renovated car will go into service after Jan. 1. RTA's
> goal is to renovate two cars each month, until all 40 cars are in service.
> The interior renovation features brighter lights, upgraded seats and seat
> frames, new windows and more space for wheelchairs, strollers and bicycles.
> 
> [image: RTA's Red Line is getting a long-awaited makeover. Find out here
> what you can expect to see over the next two
> years.]<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fnews%2Fdec-10-11-rta-unveils-new-red-line-cars>
>   Happy Anniversary: Light-rail service began here 100 years ago A few
> miles of track in Shaker Heights grew into the system we see today
> 
> 100 years ago, on Dec. 17, 1913, Cleveland's Rapid Transit began growing
> into the system we know today. Trains began operating on the first 1.6 mile
> segment<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fdec-17-1913-first-light-rail-service-operates-shaker-heights>in
> the median of what would become Shaker Blvd., from Coventry Road east
> to
> Fontenay Road. The fare was 3 cents. That section is now part of RTA's
> Green Line. It is the oldest local section of continuously operating Rapid
> tracks still in use today.
> 
> [image: One hundred years? It seems like only yesterday that light rail
> service began in Cleveland. Find out more about our history
> here.]<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=62511047&msgid=883868&act=NAHI&c=345125&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderta.com%2Fdec-17-1913-first-light-rail-service-operates-shaker-heights>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Herb Brannon
> 
> 
> *In Pittsburgh.............................A City And .........A State of
> Mind*
> Let's Go Pens
> Let's Go Steelers
> 
> 
> 
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