What happened to the trolley system? (Pittsburgh, New Castle: transfer, neighborhoods, bankruptcy)

[UKyank]

Just curious, from talking to folks around and looking at old photos, I know that the city & surrounding area had an extensive trolley/streetcar system at one time and I was wondering what the reason was for scrapping it (not counting the 'T'). Seems a shame to me. Thanks.

[ossewa]

There are lots of theories, this wiki article is surprisingly good.

[PreservationPioneer]

It's too bad we can't get them back.

[chielgirl]

I can remember in the last 50s, early 60s that the oil and auto lobby came to town to sell us on buses.
They said that buses would be able to go to the curb and pick up the elderly.
It was a scam and now it costs us a lot more for transport than it should.

The car tracks are preserved under a lot of asphalt in parts of the city. Some of the track was removed completely.

Bad business decision all around.

That was a pretty good link.

[PeterRabbit]

(Carnegie Library photo)

[Geeo]

Pittsburgh and the region did have an extensive trolley system from the late 19 century to the mid-
20th century. The urban system served all city neighborhoods, and the interurban sytem served from Pittsburgh to Washington, Charleroi, New Castle.

Problem was that it was very capital intensive, and Pittsburgh Railways was in and out of bankruptcy from the 1920s through the 50s. Their glory years were during WWII because of gasoline rationing. Upon the consolidation of Pittsburgh Railways (which had also started feeder bus service to serve suburban areas) with about 30 other independent transit companies in 1964, the trolley and bus system were a shambles in private hands. Most we bankrupt and could not maintain track or rolling stock. There was no cohesion to the system and no transfers between the private companies. Pittsburgh Railways had started to abandon its tracks after World War II and replace them with buses. New suburban developments sprang up and could not be served by trolleys. City streets became more congested with cars and trolleys were stuck inthe same traffic. A lot of the urban renewal necessiated the removal of tracks (Ft. Pitt Bridge to replace the Point Bridge, Allegheny Center, East Liberty). But basically the track and trolleys had been left to rot by Pittsburgh Railways because the company didn't have money to maintain either. PAT began a system of trolley replacement with buses, which was pretty much competed by the early 1970s. Around the same time, they began to plan for an upgrade to the trolley system that was on its own right-of-way, which is the present T system and the subway downtown.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by ossewa

There are lots of theories, this wiki article is surprisingly good.

This is the best explanation. Greed destroyed street cars/trolley's all over the country.

[gg]

SUVs took the place of trollies.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

It's too bad we can't get them back.

I think we could eventually see trolleybuses in Pittsburgh. These are buses that can use electricity from wires, and there are "multimode" trolleybuses can also operate independently from the wires for at least some distance. In fact, barring a breakthrough in battery technology, I could see natural-gas-hybrid/multimode trolleybuses being a very useful technology in Pittsburgh.

Edit: Oh, and aerial gondolas also have some similar characteristics, without a lot of the drawbacks.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

SUVs took the place of trollies.

C'mon, the trolleys were long gone by the time SUVs came into being.