01-02-2021, 08:46 AM
1/2/1979. The P&LE added a second daily trip to Pittsburgh. I think it must have been done after the urging of PAT and the railroad was so confident It wouldn't work that they left 3 coaches in Pittsburgh. They added a second train that went to Beaver Falls around 10 am and returned to Pittsburgh at 11 am. This is the first run of the return trip of the second train.
If you rode the 11 AM you returned on the 5 PM train, which was packed with the early morning train that worked in Pittsburgh.
The fare was $4.40 round trip. At the time I don't think you could park anywhere in Pittsburgh for less than 10 bucks a day. The powers that regulated rates at the time would not allow an increase in fare so the railroad could make more money, but they allowed them to discontinue the train.
Railroad math is entirely unlike any math you studied in school. When I was running the Kiski I got a real education into the railroad economics, and I must say, they are very railroad favorable, but they have to be because they are the only form of transportation that pays property taxes on everything they own.
Charlie
The fare was $4.40 round trip. At the time I don't think you could park anywhere in Pittsburgh for less than 10 bucks a day. The powers that regulated rates at the time would not allow an increase in fare so the railroad could make more money, but they allowed them to discontinue the train.
Railroad math is entirely unlike any math you studied in school. When I was running the Kiski I got a real education into the railroad economics, and I must say, they are very railroad favorable, but they have to be because they are the only form of transportation that pays property taxes on everything they own.
Charlie