[PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines

Sat Apr 26 11:24:41 EDT 2014

I suspect the observation here is simply changing demographics of the labor force.   There are, for example, more women graduating with law and medical degrees today than men.  I would not want to suggest riding changes from male to female without sounding bigoted but I would suggest that it would change from almost all male to half male / half female today.  Might even go farther toward females today because we have cases like my own granddaughter … she is a charge nurse in an E. R.   Her husband is the house husband … he stays home and makes sure the four kids are cared for … fed, bathed, off to school, etc.   Once in a while he dumps two older ones on us because two in nappies is enough.    Different society today.

On Apr 26, 2014, at 1:03 AM, Dwight Long wrote:

> John
> 
> Same thing happened over a number of years on the South Shore.
> 
> Back in “the day” ridership into the Loop was predominately male.  In recent years has been predominately female.
> 
> I understand the female cohort.  But this begs the question:  where are the males employed?  Or aren’t they?
> 
> Dwight
> 
> From: John Swindler 
> Sent: Friday, 25 April, 2014 23:28
> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
> 
> 
> Perhaps the lesson is that the people constituting a systems ridership is not constant.  If 12,000 rode daily last year, and 12,000 rode daily this year, it's not the same 12,000 persons.  Some ride for a few months.  Some for a few years.  And a few for many years.
> 
> 
> 
>> From: dwightlong at verizon.net
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>> Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 23:07:27 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
>> 
>> 
>> Fred
>> 
>> I don’t have a clue about the men in Hershey, unless they consumed too much of the local product.
>> 
>> The women in Hummelstown are perplexed because the last flood, supposedly a 500 year episode, washed out the local railway bridge and they have been cut off from Middletown for a couple of years. But not to worry, your Govt to the rescue—the bridge is undergoing (maybe it is finished by now) a multi-million dollar repair and the fair maidens will lament no more.
>> 
>> I just came back from a train trip that went over a similarly Govt funded, restored bridge—in White Deer, Pa., but the expenditure was only a paltry million USD.
>> 
>> Your tax dollars at work.  Although I must admit I can think of far worse uses for them.
>> 
>> BTW, if one flies into Harrisburg (on commercial service), whose airport is used?
>> 
>> Dwight
>> 
>> From: Fred Schneider 
>> Sent: Thursday, 24 April, 2014 21:07
>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
>> The men in Hershey and women in Hummelstown is perplexing.   Why?
>> 
>> Older versus younger might represent a change in how some state or federal government agencies awarded parking spaces.  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 24, 2014, at 6:58 PM, John Swindler wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> When I first started riding the 7:20 am Hershey bus to Harrisburg around 2000, ridership never exceeded 6 during first year, and occasionally I was the only rider.  After 5-6 years, a 40 foot bus was assigned when ridership routinely exceeded 20.  By 2010, a third bus was added to the schedule to alleviate overcrowding.
>>> 
>>> About the only constant for a dozen years was that I rode this bus.  There was constant change in the ridership.  For a few years it was mostly women.  Then for a few years mostly men.  Then switched back to women.  At the end, men tended to board in Hershey, while the women boarded in Hummelstown.  Even the age of riders fluctuated.  Older riders in early years.  A lot of young people at the end.    
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:26:03 -0400
>>>> From: shadow at dementix.org
>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>>>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] 9/5/65 - Last day for PAT trolley lines
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 5:44 PM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Unduplicated route miles in Toronto after the Bloor subway opened might
>>>>> have been around 40ish.   At that time Pittsburgh was still running to
>>>>> McKeesport, Drake, Library, West View.  Millvale and the West End One of my
>>>>> favorite examples is a comparison of two almost identical cities …
>>>>> Harrisburg, Pa. and Victoria, BC.   Both have populations on the same order
>>>>> of magnitude but the Canadian city has ten times more bus riders than the
>>>>> Pennsylvania city … 150,000 on a weekday in Victoria versus 15,000 in
>>>>> Harrisburg.   You stand on the main streets in downtown Victoria in the
>>>>> rush hour and you see buses swallowing up crowds of people.  I did that in
>>>>> 2007.  Harrisburg?  Why would I humble myself to ride a bus?   I own a car.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> Why would I do either? my bike certainly took me from Camp Hill to the
>>>> Eisenhower Interchange and back easily enough ;)
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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