The New Colonist...for the citizen of the new century

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on Thursday, April 28th, Dave Tessitor said

Eric, In response to your [blog entry], "Yet no one has suggested extending the EXISTING LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM to Oakland." ... I did, but there won't be anything done effectively with rail until we restructure transit in PA. That is why I am working with Senator Jane Orie and Rep. Tom Stephenson on a new proposal, unsprawl.org. I can use help promoting it.
You need to understand the reason for the creation of the Port Authority in the first place. After nearly ten years of legislation and bi-annual updates, starting in the early 1950's, the Port Authority was created in 1963 with specific statutory power to use eminent domain to confiscate the Pittsburgh Railways company which was still turning a profit operating the largest street rail transit operation remaining in the world at that time. Pittsburgh Railways, which is still located in Hazelwood, fought PAT and lost and now makes bronze plaques or something such as that.

Included in the last two rounds of legislation was the ability for PAT to build a "proprietary technology" which in fact was Skybus. Westinghouse could not compete with GE in the electric rail market so with a no bid contract for its system, they had it made. Unfortunately, at the time there was no way to switch Skybus, so it could only go in a loop as it did at the long since dismantled demonstration track around South Park (there is still a segment that was moved to along Chartiers Creek where it stands together with some collector's other stuff) or back and forth as it does now between the landside and airside terminals at the airport. A switching mechanism was eventually created -- a 40 foot long segment of pavement which goes one way on the topside and goes another way on the underside; there's an axle down the middle which enables it to be flipped upside down.

Ed Tennyson, PA Deputy Secretary of Transportation in the 1970's, refused to release the state money for the initial South Hills route, forcing PAT against its wishes to take the state and federal money and build the Skybus project his way. We now call it the T. PAT management, local PennDOT officials, and, most importantly, the Allegheny Conference have resented him ever since. They secretly despise rail transit with a passion and they did everything they could to assure the T would be an orphan system, building it so it could not to be expanded for the rest of the County. They only rebuilt the Overbrook line after gold plating it to nearly a half billion dollars, which is four to five times more than it should have cost, thereby using up the available transit money and making sure there won't be much more done. The main reason they redid the closed Overbrook line was to make the trip into town faster for the affluent riders from Upper St Clair; it was only at the last minute that the primary routing on it was switched to Library.

The proposed extension of the T for a few blocks to the North Side, at a cost of another half billion for the Runnel (the Chunnel goes under the channel), is another way of cutting off its expansion. The planners were incredulous when residents told them at planning meetings that they wanted it to serve them too. The Runnel extension project eliminates the ability to connect with the East Busway route to Oakland and points east and makes sure it does not actually go to the North Side where people live. The Conference has made sure the T will be cut off from the general populace.

But PAT is fond of pointing out that it is not against rail, as it uses a clever ruse to acquire federal funding. The federal government lumps all the various forms of rail transit, monorails, etc. under a catch all heading of "fixed guideways." In the 1960's, Al Biehler, our current Secretary of Transportation, came up with his own variation, a third world technology called the busway, which of course is nothing other than a bus only highway. In a quirk that defies reason, it too is classified and funded by the federal government as a fixed guideway. This helped PAT get federal funding for the so-called "Airport Busway," as a key member of Congress was against funding transit capital projects but, as a matter of policy, fully supported financing for rail lines connecting airports to their downtowns. As a fixed quideway "to the airport," the project slid under his radar.

The Allegheny Conference and PAT grabbed Biehler's busway strategy as complimentary with their Skybus technology. "NO STEEL WHEELS!" became their unofficial motto and their official policy. It also helped that the chairman of the PAT was executive vice president of Gulf Oil and that Gulf had the diesel fuel contract with PAT. Even with the death of Skybus, the inertia of error has kept PAT and the Conference off the steel track.

Biehler is also the person who as Allegheny County Planner in the 1960's pushed to put the T underground in the Downtown instead of on the streets where it could have been expanded and where Mayor Pete Flaherty wanted it. During one of the Spine Line planning meetings in the mid-1990's, I proposed to a rail loop up the Second Avenue rail right-of-way to Panther Hollow and back down a rail conversion of the East Busway, which could have tied into the existing light rail. The PAT planners were not happy when a number of the residents of Oakland started saying that that was what they wanted instead of the multi-billion dollar "Spineline" subway.

But PAT was refused to consider converting the East Busway back to rail when Edgewood pushed for it instead of the illogical East Busway Extension. Their reason was that the T was at capacity and couldn't be expanded. White man talk with forked tongue when increasing capacity with the Overbrook reconstruction or for the proposed Runnel.

Interestingly, mayoral candidate Bob O'Connor is calling for street cars to Oakland from Downtown. He has gotten some flack for it, but at $2 million per mile for the Racine, WI system compared to the $26 million national cost figure for light rail, it really isn't such a bad idea. It may be ten times the coverage for the dollar, but PAT doesn't want it.

Nothing will change until we restructure PAT (and SEPTA in Philly, too).

on Thursday, April 28th, James Holland said

Sorry ---- confiscation of Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo)
was NOT the reason to form (([pat.])) The reason was
consolidation of all county transit systems (20-50 some companies)
into one homogenous system to allow much freer flow of passengers with
smooth transfer connections -- PRCo just happened to be the largest In
Allegheny County -- But VERY FAR from the largest in the street
railway world. Melbourne, Australia, was//IS much larger and
there Are Many in Europe -- St.-Petersburg (Leningrad) Russia has
Long Held That Title as THE largest in the world! St.-Petersburg
currently has 1,500--2,000 PCCs and this is just a fraction of what
used to be!

04/21/2005: "The Death Nail"