[PRCo] Mixed Bag Of Old Pittsburgh

Sun Jun 30 13:20:46 EDT 2013

Who says they (prospective passengers) HAVE to live in Allegheny County?
That's why there are so many Park and Ride Lots all over the area. In fact,
if a commuter is not early enough to get into the P and R Lot they are not
getting a parking space. Most of the lots along the trolley lines are full
between 6:30am and 7:30am each weekday.

Also, maybe I'm missing something, but what does the first sentence of your
post mean?  I don't see a correlation between today's PAT headway's and
people hired in the early 1980s ?? Like I said, maybe I'm missing something
there. I would like to know how the two are related to each other.

I would also tell you Fred, to come into the actual "city" sometime. There
is a world outside PTM and Meadowlands, PA. Drive through South Side,
Shadyside, East Liberty, Beechview, Brookline, Carrick, etc. and see what
myself and at least one other person on The List talk about. Even Mt
Oliver, in spite of it's reputation has every storefront on and near
Brownsville Road occupied with operating businesses. East Liberty is the
one to really look at. The streets are open again and you would not
recognize the place today. Many, many new buildings and businesses along
with crowded streets and sidewalks. Apparently, Fred, you did not hear the
announcement made by the Brookings Institute on May 1st stating that
Pittsburgh is the first (1st) major U.S. city to have fully recovered from
the Great Recession of 2008. It's not all gloom and doom as you would have
it seem.

On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:

> Regardless of how heavy it is today, you are going back to people hired in
> the early 1980s.   At that time the city of Pittsburgh had already shrunk
> to about 423,000 residents.  The 2010 census showed 305,000.
>
> I have no 1980 number for Wilkinsburg.  It had almost 30,000 in 1940 and
> about 16,000 in 2010.
>
> McKeesport is another for which I have no continuous record.  That city
> had 55,000 in 1940 … probably around 35,000 in 1980.   It was under 20,000
> in 2010.
>
> Essentially, Allegheny county lost 200,000 people between 1980 and now.
> If they are not there, you cannot haul them.  There might have still been a
> few kids in the 1970s who felt they didn't need a car or could borrow dad's
> car.   Today it is probably a car for every licensed driver.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 30, 2013, at 12:54 AM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
> > As far as talking to "fellow operators", no. They are probably residing
> in
> > Arizona or Flori-duh these days. PATransit has a strict policy of
> 25-years
> > then retire, no ifs, ans, or buts. That means that the "newest" operator
> I
> > could have known would have retired in 2008 or 2009.
> >
> > The service, while still being very intense on some routes, is not what
> it
> > was in the 1970s and 1980s. They still call the rail vehicles "trolleys"
> > however. The equipment appears much newer these days than what it was
> back
> > in my era with PATransit. That goes for both buses and trolleys.
> Pittsburgh
> > always has special events going on someplace in the city. They do run
> > "two-car-trains" during special events times and weekday rush hours also.
> > There are far more "articulated" buses now than when I worked for them.
> > Also the route structure has changed a lot but it actually now seems to
> be
> > in tune with where the customers want to go, at least in the city and the
> > first and second rings of boroughs. Destination Signs are very
> interesting
> > now also. Aspects such as 44-Knoxville   /   44 Downtown-Pennsylvania
> > Station ; 27 - Fairywood (used to be 27-Carnegie) ; 75-Wilkinsburg   /
> > South Side-Oakland  (A newer routing for the old 75 line) ; 61D-Murray
> > Avenue   /   61D Waterfront (The old 68 line going to Homestead and not
> > continuing on to Kennywood and McKeesport) And many more interesting
> signs
> > on the buses. The trolleys, on the other hand, have very bland signs
> > reading "Red Line", "Blue Line", etc. Generally, PATransit is doing OK
> > right now. However, a source of dedicated funding is a must if public
> > transit is to continue as a viable alternative to the personal vehicle.
> >
> > Traffic is snarled all over Pittsburgh from about 6am to 7pm every
> weekday.
> > This, of course, do to the terrain and the narrow roads. I stay off the
> > Parkways (there are now three, the East, West, and North Parkways) during
> > heavy traffic periods. I find that my shortcuts "over the mountains" may
> > take a few minutes longer but I keep moving better than on the Parkways.
> > The State Legislature is now debating a bill to provide some support to
> > transit authorities but it's not really enough. A change of politicians
> > from the conservatives to a more progressive bunch is needed before
> > anything will be done to make public transit better. After all, didn't
> you
> > know that we have a "right" to drive our vehicles, even if it does take
> two
> > hours to go fifteen miles and contributes to the destruction of the
> planet.
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 11:19 PM, Phillip Clark Campbell
> > <pcc_sr at yahoo.com>wrote:
> >
> >> Forbes field looks very good as does the aerial of the Point.
> >> The latter may be about 1940 as Fort Pitt Blvd appears intact from
> >> east of Liberty to the Smithield bridge.  Clarity in this photo
> >> is much better than most.
> >>
> >> Mr.Brannon-- How does Pat compare now as to when you left?
> >> Have you seen and talked to former fellow operators?  What
> >> is your impression of the system?
> >>
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --- On Thu, 6/27/13, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> From: Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net>
> >> Subject: [PRCo] Mixed Bag Of Old Pittsburgh
> >> To: "Western PA Trolley discussion" <
> >> pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
> >> Date: Thursday, June 27, 2013, 9:12 PM
> >>
> >> I stumbled upon a "varied" lot of photos of Old Pittsburgh. If anyone
> has
> >> any additional info on the individual photos, I'm all ears.
> >>
> >> No, I did not put these through the "photo shrinking" program, so some
> are
> >> big and some are small.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Herb Brannon
> >> Back In The Burgh !
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Herb Brannon
> > Back In The Burgh !
> > Let's Go Bucs
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
Herb Brannon
Back In The Burgh !
Let's Go Bucs

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