Skybus, a history (Pittsburgh, Lebanon, Greensburg: appointed, employment, neighborhoods)

[hempfield mania]

In honor of the little event happening at my place of employment today, take a look at this neat website to read about the history of Skybus and how it kickstarted a global industry.

Skybus in Pittsburgh

[Copanut]

Too bad Pgh didn't go for it back in the day. I remember riding that thing in South Park, it was pretty cool.

[BrianTH]

I agree it is too bad it didn't get implemented--that said, every time I see those windowless ends, it kinda freaks me out.

[MathmanMathman]

I'm beginning to think that maybe it would have been better to upgrade the trolley system instead. I remember Skybus as a child as it seemed to be a topic of the news every night but I was too young to grasp the issue. I heard (not sure) that then mayor Pete Flaherty had a lot to do with its demise as well as his having an anti-business administration in geneeral. Sort of set Pittsburgh up for its big decline in the 1970s and 1980s.

I remember the trollies as a child. Never rode one but they scared me as they rumbled and hummed along the streets, showered their immediate area with intermittent sparks from the powerlines above, and the air seemed have an odor of ozone. At that time, the American automobile industry was trying to drive streetcars out of business so I guess there was little to no money spent on streetcar upkeep. I guess they ran until they couldn't anymore. Those trollies really looked dilapidated and old.

[Copanut]

Ah, the street cars, I loved them. Hated the bus, loved the trolleys, heck, back in the day you could take one from Dahntawn Pgh to Greensburg.

A lot of reasons why the Skybus didn't happen, as usual, politics was the main one. Someone didn't get their hands greased enough.

[BrianTH]

The T is actually mostly upgraded segments of the old trolley system, plus the Downtown subway loop (more below).

The demise of Westinghouse's Skybus proposal is incredibly complicated. The passing of Richard King Mellon and David Lawrence, who had held together the coalition of Pittsburgh-area elites that had originally supported Skybus, contributed to a loss of organized support, as did the election of Flaherty, who had run against the Lawrence machine. It also ran into opposition by a Republican County Commissioner based in the Mon Valley, William Hunt, in part because the proposed system wouldn't be serving that area.

A company called WABCO (ironically, another company created by George Westinghouse, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company) proposed, late in the process, to build a steel wheel line instead, from East Liberty through Downtown into the South Hills, which they claimed would cost much less, although Skybus supporters disputed those claims. PAT and most of the relevant officials continued to support Skybus, along with a lot of the business community, but the WABCO alternative was favored by some of the poorer neighborhoods in the East End, and stakeholders in the steel industry. A bunch of suburban officials also opposed the very idea of a new county-wide transit system, seeing it as part of an overall attempt to consolidate power in the metro area.

Flaherty and Hunt eventually went to war on Skybus, scaremongering about the technology in the press, claiming (somewhat accurately) it was a project conceived in backrooms full of elites, using delay tactics on things like permitting, lobbying at the federal level against it, and going to court to seek an injunction halting the project, which they got. The injunction was eventually overturned, but not before the feds decided to require a reapplication for federal funding, and the state pulled its own funding. A Task Force was appointed to consider alternatives, and in part in order to preserve federal funding, it recommended going with a combination of busways and an upgraded trolley/Downtown-subway instead. And that is what we got.

[Copanut]

I think I explained it, politics.

[PeterRabbit]

Oil companies wanted people driving cars.

[MathmanMathman]

So did this happen to Pittsburgh too?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFhsr...eature=related

[slamont61]

I do miss the old PCC Cars rolling through the rail-right-of-ways. They were a fun ride, especially the Library line, the trolleys really bounced around there.

I still remember hearing the trollies on the turn-arounds screeching loudly in the quiet night times.

Another thing I miss from that era, Andy's Loop Cafe in Mt Lebanon. Great place to have a beer and hang out or to wait under cover for the trolley to begin it's inbound trip into town.

I'm of the age group that was around for Skybus' appearance at South Park. Gone is Skybus along with the Allegheny County Fair. Saddly no one likely even cares, about either.

One scare I remember about the old PCC Trolley cars was one Rush Hour when I was sitting on one in the middle of the Smithfield Street Bridge. We were at a stand still. I could see up river some barges that had broken away from their mooring and they were heading our way. We were stuck on a bridge that was quite questionable should one of them have struck the bridge piers. That was an odd sensation. A minute later we were moving again.